MYSTERIUM An artist not an criminal! In The Death of Character (1996), Elinor Fuchs conceptualizes the "mysterium" as a modernist theatrical practice with a strong didactic orientation that adapts the expository nature of the original medieval genre to the historical reality of early twentieth century. What takes place is a phenomenon broader than the revival of medievalism that had characterized symbolist dramas in the late years of the nineteenth century. The modernist mysterium investigates the conflict between the individual and the community, privileging the interior perspective of the dramatic character(s) instead of presenting the fictional world as if it were the reflection of an empirical reality. This strain of modernist theater adopts structural and symbolic patterns typical of the mystery play and religious drama – from allegorical depiction to images of martyrdom – which are now interpreted in reference to contemporary political discourses. Questioning the traditional division of modernism between the "irrationalists" and the "materialists", Fuchs notes how Toller, Mayakosvky and Brecht were drawn to the mysterium form "as implausible as the project of dressing the Marxist doctrine in Christian eschatology might seem at first glance" Andrés Pérez-Simón
War catwalk, the performance made by digital network community demand.
An art workshop with war veterans addressed the problem of suicide in the context of a digital culture that does not allow for permanent death, the complete loss of information. A networked digital temporary community was soon formed. Her activity revealed new ways of artistic performance. The community becomes both author and performer, director and playwright. Beings that perform in human physical reality are the result of digital network community communication with performance interfaces. A heterogeneous artistic performance emerges. It takes place in all possible performance interfaces, uses all known forms, ignores the limitations of time and space, subsequently enters its identity. Veteran's workshop produces public performances, the digital network community creates its Hero, a representative among people, the Hero tries to end his existence by suicide, this creates a permanent network identity in video performances, ritual performances by which veterans donate blood, and culminates in digital physical performance to the territory of India as a theatrical stage and the pier Manikarmika to Varanasi as catharsis. The mystery does not end. For now, it lasts only ten human years.
Blood donated by war veterans, extracted during contemplation about suicide.