OCEAN or: the touch of a relational lifeworld

by Bojana Cvejič

Sometimes, a performance, a work of art, reveals its timeliness in a time that does not favor its public appearance. Circumstances happen, and they hinder its reception, and while the work of mounting a performance for few occasions for too few spectators might seem disappointingly vain to its makers, the performance still finds other ways of working through to us, reaching the spectators who couldn’t experience the full event. Like sprouting new tentacles that will extend it into other modes of existence — a map, a conversation, a rehearsal, a rumor — the work begins to live in the mythical glow of incompleteness. This condition is not unusual for those artworks of which we cherish the most vivid memories even if we only saw a glimpse of them.

I was among the few clandestinely drawn into the circle of OCEAN during its rehearsals in March 2021, when arguably, the pandemic with its austere restriction of public gatherings suspended the performing arts at large. In a glass building (Kanal Pompidou), originally devised for showcasing automobiles on a busy junction in Brussels (Square Sainctelette), a ritualistic performance sculpture transpired for what seemed to be long hours. Indifferent to the noisy traffic outside, which recalled me to a world ominously threatening to choke us, we gathered around a circle in which three persons dwelled and, at times, occupied themselves with laborious actions. One was kneading dough for bread, while another one was preparing tea in a samovar; the third one singing. The chant seemed to color a long breath: a motif of a few tones patterned like a call (question) and response, ascending and descending, and repeating over and over again. The circular motion of the chant emulated the rhythm of breathing, evening out long inhalations and exhalations. It reminded me of the exercises in which one calms their spirits, or a mood of distress, by breathing into and with the whole body. The “songing” of the breath served to sharply separate out the time-space of OCEAN set against the city.

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