Performing Mourning: Laments in Contemporary Art

by Guy Cools

A poetical meditation on forms of mourning, from the collective to the personal The pandemic has made us keenly aware of the fragility of life and the need to properly mourn the dead. Here, in a poetic, meandering and intimate style, theorist and dramaturg Guy Cools explores cultural rituals and artists’ performances to examine the many forms of lament. He delves into artistic strategies to address or express mourning; collective mourning rituals and how they invite communities to witness loss; contemporary examples of laments entailing dialogue with both the dead and with loved ones absent because of migration or exile; the very particular kind of mourning that occurs when we grieve for the unrealized potential of a child, such as an unborn child; and finally, lamenting the loss of a future.
Guy Cools is a Belgian critic, curator and dramaturg currently living in Vienna. With the Canadian choreographer Lin Snelling he developed an improvised performance practice, Rewriting Distance, that focuses on the integration of movement, voice and writing.

220 pages, Paperback

Published November 2, 2021

Reviews

[Amelie]

introduced some very great topics that i definitely want to dissect further

[Eleonora · Rating 5 out of 5]

A topic we should all be talking, writing, and performing about. Much need read in these present times.

[Cassidy · Rating 4 out of 5]

my grandma asked me what book i was reading and when i told her about it she said “how esoteric” and i suppose she’s probably right. it’s very possible that the only thing more pretentious than being legitimately into performance art is reading critical theory about performance art for fun. but alas this is my truth and we’re gonna have to live with it.

all that aside: i really liked this book! i bought it because it seemed pretty exactly up my alley (dance! contemporary performance! grief and mourning! wow!) and i was right. some parts felt a little repetitive (and all the talk of the “unborn” had me feeling a bit bristled tbh) but overall i left feeling inspired to start making performance work again.

sometimes i wonder what it is about grief that even now, 9 years after the death of my step-brother, i still feel like i have things to say or figure out through artistic practice. and then i think about grief a little bit longer and remember how it still feels too big to wrap my mind around. it feels so cliché to be so inspired by loss but no other experience in my life has inspired as much deep thought and creative expression as mourning. reading this book was a nice(?) reminder that whatever i make about grief falls into a long and universal human tradition. inherently, grief is bigger than words, it is nearly impossible for us to comprehend, no wonder so many people, around the world across time and place, have turned to art in all its many forms (but especially performance) to try and make sense of it. sometimes it feels like i’m exploiting my brother’s memory; i’m sure he would hate to know how much i have written about him (this goodreads book review included), how many art works i have made about him (and how many more i will make), and especially how i have mourned him now for longer than i knew him. i’m trying not to feel guilty about it (making art about this part of my life, dwelling on it, needing to continue actively trying to make sense of it all) reading this helped.

the truth is that what happens to us when we’re 15 often has a massive impact on who we become and loss shaped me in many ways. the truth is that loss often has a massive impact on you, even when you’re not 15 when you first encounter it. the greatest gift i have gotten from grief is a deep well of gratitude that i get to be Here, Now, experiencing the full spectrum of human life on this planet. reading about how others have turned their sorrow into moments of beauty, expression, catharsis, and community has been just another reminder of how lucky i feel to be here, in such a beautiful place, a part of this special little species.

[Inci Gül · Rating 5 out of 5]

Yes, to this book. Wished it would emphasise a bit further on the positive death movement that many woman are taking part in. However I loved the citations - they resonated deeply. A topic we should all be more busy with…. I also just really enjoy the writing of Cools - an amazing sensitivity with a clarity draped in a fog of spiritual truthfulness.