The Burial Project
Can we mourn while we are still alive to make room for peace of mind and heart?
What can a dignified death look like if our living is not offered dignity?
The Burial Project, which toggles between titles, is one that has been in process since December 2019 with three loose iterations given limitations on space, time and resources. It is a vessel for speculation, writing and visualizing grief, death and mourning centering both Afghan and Muslim traditions.
Part performance, part installation, witnessing the process is uniquely the crux as it decentralizes me as a subject, inviting viewers to participate and reflect on their own mortality.
The burial project is not meant to glorify, parody, diminish or dismiss death. It is not meant to reduce the severity of loss, grief or hurt. As a queer Musilm, it is intended to mourn the lives we have outgrown and yet still embody. It is the extension of arms, racing towards our cultural, religious and family traditions that at times did not do or do not do the same for us.
Yes, we choose to be reconciled even if and when they are not, knowing full well that our queer living may not be celebrated in our lifetimes, we choose to embody the rites of passage of our dying and its choreography that is deeply known in our bodies.
This new work is dedicated to those of us, queer, displaced, marginalized, third culture, hiding, surviving, striving and deeply desiring the traditions and rituals that give us peace of heart, but knowing they aren’t always guaranteed to us or reflect us in our true forms. May engaging in this performance begin to relieve us of our exhaustions.
Queer and/or trans Muslim kin and collaborators are invited to reach out to learn more: wazina@gmail.com
