Invisible Bonds: Performativity of Death in the Everyday (2021-24) is an artistic practice based on multilocal ethnography that studies the performativity of death in the everyday. It draws from local knowledge to devise critical immersive experiences that offer to recover intimacy with our own finitude and with the natural cycles we are part of. The protocols were developed in conversation and collaboration with archaeologists, funeral directors, local activists, curators and artists. They meditate on topics tangential to death, which remain invisible within the halo of this taboo topic, such as practices related to memory, permanence and continuity and material relations between the dead and the living.

During this period Maldonado collected interviews, made installations, performances and podcasts to spread what she learned. She researched and shaped a particular artistic-ethnographic practice by establishing long-term collaborative relationships with  experts on the topic of death in France, Spain and Mexico. The methodology of this artistic practice continues to be used in further research residencies in other countries.

This action was part of the IN SITU European platform for artistic creation in public space, in the frame of the project (UN) COMMON SPACES, co-funded by the Creative Europe Program of the European Union. Supported by Fira Tarrega, Čtyři Dny, Punctum, Czech Theater Institute, Atelier 231 and Au bout du Plongeoir.

Research residencies

2022 

France: Au Bout Du Plongeoir, Rennes

Spain: Fira Tarrega

Mexico: Centro de las Artes de San Agustin

2023 

France: Au Bout Du Plongeoir and Cooperative Funeraire de Rennes

Spain: Arxiu Comarcal de l’Urgell, Tarrega

Mexico: Centro de las Artes de San Agustin, Oaxaca

2024

Thailand: Pak Nam Pran, Bangkok, Chiang Mai

Japan: Ruriden Columbarium

Medium: expanded etnography, exhibition, podcast, publication, protocols, artistic practice, performance

Year: 2021 -24
Version: English, Spanish and French 
Concept: Cristina Maldonado


The project was developed in dialogue with the Cooperative Funeraire de Rennes 
and with the support and collaboration of Au bout du Plongeoir, Atelier 231, 
Čtyři Dny from Czech Republic and Fira Tarrega, Arxiu Comarcal de l'Urgell, Museu Comarcal de l'Urgell, Spain,  Funeraria San Antonio, Centro de las Artes de San Agustín, Mexico. 

And it is an action of IN SITU European platform for artistic creation in public space, 
in the frame of the project (UN) COMMON SPACES, co-funded by the 
Creative Europe Program of the European Union. 

Keywords: journey, memory, funeral practices, mixed media performance, pop up

Podcasts:

in-situ.info: Tween Tree: about the dialogue between an artist and a citizen 
in-situ.info: Lo que Tarrega me ha enseñado de la muerte

Narratives:

in-situ.info: Relational Practice or Dreaming of Pollination
in-situ.info: Fiction and Reality in Artistic Creation by Marc EL Samrani

Narratives of Related Works:

Infinite Game

Flirting With Finitude

Plant a Person

La Muerte en Papel