Похороны Мухи/ Fly Funeral

Nikola-Lenivets, Archstoyanie festival, Russia, 2018 Video installation based on performance FLY FUNERAL at Archstoyanie festival. The performance "Fly Funeral" investigates a collision between modern society and mythological archetypes from the pagan Russian rituals. People used to believe that after the death the soul of a human travels to the body of an insect. When the fall comes and all insects disappear/fall asleep, villagers considered that this was insects traveling to the lower worlds. To bring the insects back after the winter they organised funerals with coffins from vegetables, ritual procession and farewell with cries and tears. According to their belief, insects (who contain the souls of dead relatives) will see how people care about them and come back in the spring time. With the adoption of Christianity, the ritual changed its meaning, and insects became something you need to get rid of and clean the house before the cold weather. Thus, the harmonious relationship between humans and nature mutates into a state of sin, where nature is considered as something evil and sinful. The feeling of unity with the environment and the feeling of being a part of the natural world as a human being are disappearing. Having lost touch with nature, people has lost the primitive sense of death as part of the natural cycle - the cycle of life. "Funeral of the Fly" reflects on this past - when humans recognised themselves as a part of nature and every creature has its own sacred sense. Implicitly the performance also addresses how we as an society identify ourselves as a part of nature today. Author: Masha Kechaeva Performance by Masha Kechaeva and Alexey Kokhanov Composer: Alexey Kokhanov Camera: Salomeya Sobko, Daria Rybalchenko, Tom Ellis Editing director: Salomeya Sobko Performers: Anna Zedik, Leonid Volkov, Alexander Hitov, Anna Simakina, Dima Fedotov, Evgeniya Fomina, Maria Livadina, Nastasia Tretyakova, Roger-Vadim Elichev, Roman Karelin, Sasha Vsesviatskaya