Shop­ping Centre Ritu­al, 2009

Per­form­ance at Wiez­mann Square, Holon, Israel

Assisted by Yossi Atia

Com­mis­sioned and pro­duced by Hapzura Arts Fest­iv­al, Israeli Centre for Digit­al Art

Cli­ents: Mem­bers of the public

Loc­a­tion: Wiez­mann Square Shop­ping Centre, Holon, Israel

Ques­tions: What is the mean­ing of life, why do we come into this world if we die in the end? more to come…

What is the mean­ing of life, why do we come into this world if we die in the end?

Mar­cus Coates: Very dark – can’t find my way – scared. Use hand to feel the side, rough wall, bumpy floor, keep walk­ing, not get­ting any­where. Black­ness – feel I’m walk­ing in circles, feel dry area, sit down. Eyes start to see lights – holes in the cave, shafts of light from roof of cave. Sud­denly a shape went through the light. I could hear high screeches, I knew the shapes were swifts from the sound. I could hear lots of them, catch­ing insects. Could only see them when they crossed the light. Play­ful and fast – could feel them skim­ming my head. 

Per­haps life is not there to be seen and under­stood all at once, there are occa­sion­al small glimpses of under­stand­ing, none of them total. The swifts was only vis­ible for a very small moment and this was not pos­sible to predict. 

To see your whole life and under­stand its mean­ing is per­haps impossible. To have a sense of your life, how­ever fleet­ing, reveal­ing itself in a moment of time when you don’t expect or can’t con­trol – these moments might be the closest we get to know­ing why we are alive.