Death: Southbank Centre's Festival for the Living
A “festival” running at London’s Southbank Centre in January explores death from all angles. The festival will explore attitudes towards death, using music, workshops, literature and art installations. Festival events range from the whimsical to the serious.
Highlights include an art installation entitled “the ‘Boxed’ coffin exhibition”, which features a number of unusual coffins, including coffins in the shape of a dumpster, a lion, a Mercedes, a car, and a skateboard.
Less light-hearted events include a debate on assisted dying; a music concert featuring composers obsessed with death; an art installation that commemorates the 250,000 people that will be born or die in 12 hours around the world; a poetry workshop on writing poetry when dealing with the grief associated with the death of a loved one, and a pseudo-funeral procession borrowing from a New Orleans funeral parade.
Other events include a chalkboard where attendees can record an item from their “bucket-list” of the one thing that they want to do before they die, and a children’s play chronicling the last days of a pet guinea pig.
Together, the festival’s numerous events shed light on and led to healthy discussion of a topic many are reluctant to talk about.
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Paul E. Trudelle - Click here for more information on Paul Trudelle.
