Sept peaux de Rhinocéros

• Duration: 1 h 10
• France
• Tout public
• 479 vues

Josef Nadj

"Fear of death, and death itself, are the most common human subjects. That confrontation with the implacable power of death constitutes a spiritual act, an initiation. I learned it from my grandfather’s stories, and from his own death, from the debilitating, primal fear of the end that he experienced during the war.
I remember, just before his death, he danced his transition into the great beyond for me to see. It was a trance-like, visceral dance, a mockery of man’s earthly qualities as well as the ritual of the decomposing body. I’m certain that his intention for that dance was to make light of his impending death. For me it was a moment of learning, the transmission of the highest form of knowledge. And yet, his death was horrible. He agonised on his death bed for seven whole days. He lost his voice, but it kept on talking. I couldn’t bear to hear them anymore, all those stories he wanted to be rid of. And yet I understood them, because with each passing day I sank into the same pathological fragility as him, peeling back the layers of indifference. Seven days it lasted. This piece tells his stories.”

Josef Nadj