Summer, God, Rain Swimming Pool, Sliven and Sofia, 2024

Summer, God, Rain is a video work part of the series of works Two Stones and Heaven is a Fountain in your Veins. The video documents a performance in Sliven, Bulgaria, where I collaborated with curators Maya Shopova, Pauline Shongov, and herbalist Bai Stoyan to re-enact the Peperuda/Dodala rain-summoning ritual. This traditional ritual, led by women, involves dance and herbs such as willow, elderberry, and barley to invoke rain and fertility. Our performance sought to reconnect with the landscape, using herbs to merge with its qualities and engaging in a collective act of self-reparation. The setting for the ritual was the site of the abandoned Sredna Banya Ottoman bathhouse, now an asphalt parking lot, symbolizing a space once associated with communal cleansing. Through our reenactment, we aimed to symbolically restore wetness and fertility to this dried and forgotten space.

The performance was collaborative and fluid, blurring authorship boundaries. While I guided the process, contributions from others, like Maya taking on the role of Peperuda and Pauline assisting with filming, enriched the experience. The flexible nature of the ritual allowed for a shared, playful exploration that transcended the historical script, making it deeply personal. Gender subtly played a role, with Bai Stoyan, though male, embodying a connection to the landscape and herbs that mirrored feminine energies. The performance also featured contemporary and archival recordings of the Peperuda song, including the voice of Bulgarian ethnomusicologist Deniza Popova and archival recordings from the 1950s-60s, creating a bridge between past and present. Summer, God, Rain reflects on how we engage with fading spaces and memories, with wetness in both the bathhouse and the ritual symbolizing renewal and adaptability. It reimagines our relationship with architectural and emotional spaces, exploring how we might care for them even in decay.

Vimeo link