CEREMONIA I. : IN DEFENSE OF TENDERNESS is a psycho-ritual performance meant for film camera. The film witnesses an intimate ceremony for Yara Travieso & a small group of people. Travieso asked guests to support her terrified body while she practices how to surrender to its fears with others. This work was born out of a series of rituals Travieso created to save her own life during an extremely difficult period. During this time, she created various practices to wake up from the abusive trance of capitalist patriarchal programing. The ritual worked, allowing Travieso to open a new part of herself and feel more alive and connected than ever before, and becoming a threat to a system that requires her emptiness.
Ritual with Yara Travieso & guests.
Film archivist, Brighid Greene.