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 & various landscapes in both NYC & Puerto Rico. Travieso asked guests to support her terrified body while she practices how to surrender confronting her painful relationship with care, and subverting the exploitative representations of sexual and reproductive labor. 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—a vulnerable transition into true interdependence and radical care. Following the ritual, Travieso was able to open a new part of herself and feel more alive and connected than ever before; becoming a threat to a system that requires her spirit to be depleted & empty.
Ritual with Yara Travieso & guests.
Sound Artist, Lizzy de Lise
Film archivist, Brighid Greene, Carla Troconis,