From Tears to Ideas

Andreea Vladut / Christa Wall  

From Tears to Ideas¹ is a collaborative interdisciplinary project which brought together Christa Wall (AT) and Andreea Vlăduț (RO). At its core lies an ongoing research process that focuses on professional mourners², while bringing to the fore the role of women as moirologists in different social and political contexts throughout history. From Tears to Ideas is also a call to an act of grief performed in a world in ruins that undergoes an ecological and climate crisis. Throug the mourning ritual, one can connect to the vulnerable and permeable individual / collective body while searching for alternative ways of care, affection, and solidarity.

The project opens a space for moirologues³ and a discussion about the Romanian traditional culture of moriologists, reinterpretations, and the place of the lament in the context of contemporary art and performance. The topics were covere from a multidisciplinary perspective through conferences held by Marina Cap-Bun⁴ (contributor to Ricarda Vidal and Maria Blanc (eds), The Power of Death: Contemporary Reflections on Death in Western Society and collaborator of Taryn Simon on the project: An Occupation of Loss), Bogdan Simion⁵ (singer, kobza player, writer) and as well as an artist talk and presentation held by the two artists.

The exhibition is a summary of Christa and Andreea’s research that includes: the field research carried out in the village of Morunglav, Pneuma’s Lamentare’s audio-video installation and the Moirologue’s book.

Pneuma Lamentare is an audio-video installation that recomposes a mourning ritual as a performative act of vulnerability. It features a composition designed for 8 speakers and a projection at its center delivering the non-linguistic features of the ritual of grief.

The initial images depict the projection of Pneuma Lamentare featured in the From Tears to Ideas exhibition held at Atelier 35 in Bucharest, Romania. The final three images represent snapshots extracted from the video.

© Delia Andrada Prodan

Ioana Mutu, Teodora Manolache, Dorel Langă, Taraful din Morunglav

The Field Research contains a series of interviews and laments of one taraf (Taraful din Morunglav), one fiddler (Dorel Langă), and two professional mourners (Teodora Manolache and Ioana Mutu). Taraful din Morunglav and Dorel Langă played the  repertoire of a funeral rite specific to Morunglav’s village and talked about all the important aspects of it through the eyes of fiddlers.

Teodora Manolache and Ioana Mutu recalled many stories about themself, their family, Andreea’s family, and they expressed their grief so intensely through laments. Teodora Manolache performed a lament for her mother and one for her cousin. Ioana Mutu performed a lament for her husband, parents, neighbor, and brother. They sang versified laments, improvised laments, using specific elements such as: announcing the moment of passing, praising the deceased, the pain felt by the entire family, signaling the dead relatives from beyond to come to embrace the deceased, etc.

Transcription of the recorded laments and interviews conducted during the field research in Morunglav, Romania.

© Delia Andrada Prodan

Moirologue is a book that serves as a medium for the gathering, dialogue, and analysis of a network of notes and notations encompassing the artistic research and the collaborative project From Tears to Ideas by Andreea Vlăduț and Christa Wall. The title Moirologue refers to the responsive structure of lamentation on its musical, as well as on its lyrical level.

© Delia Andrada Prodan

links

Pneuma Lamentare / video /
Pneuma Lamentare / audio /
HOLYHYDRA 2020
Pixelache 2021
From Tears to Ideas - A dialogue
From Tears to Ideas - Radio Fro
Kunstraum 53 Exhibition