engleski

Mirila: From Ritual to Theatre

Mirilo is a custom which was once a segment of the funeral customs in the region of Dalmatian hinterland. Either in a casket or shrouded in cerements, the deceased was placed on the ground, onto a designated area previously used as a resting spot - mirilo, for the first and the last time before arriving to the cemetery. The bearers of the body then laid one stone at the head and one at the foot of the deceased. After a short prayer, the procession would head toward the cemetery where the deceased was then buried. Mirila (pl.) once had religious significance ; it was a ritual associated with the souls of the deceased and the boundary between the living and the dead. Since the 1970`s the population of some locations in that region have migrated to work outside Croatia or in tourism on the shore. They built houses and apartments and increasingly started basing their everyday life in the new tourism economy (sun and sea). The custom of mirila with time has been completely deserted, and their locations where destroyed by paving of new roads. In early 2000, the Tourist board of Starigrad in cooperation with the Ministry of Culture protected some sites of mirila, cleaned them and presented to tourists. There was a need for expansion of tourist offer to cultural heritage, and mirila where a good example. Since then, mirila have become recognizable tourist attraction which lead to the 2011 award for "the most original tourist attraction" in Zadar County. One perfomer artist, Josip Zanki, inspired by the ritual, from 2001 to 2008 built mirila with living people resting on them, this performance theater happened in Croatian and European museums and in nature. In my presentation, I intend to problematize the role of a different context and how it influences the meaning given to this object of material culture, as well as practice connected to it.

Mirila; Ritual; Theatre; Context

nije evidentirano