Kin Matter – Ritual Practices I-IV
J&K / Janne Schäfer and Kristine Agergaard
Kin Matter – Ritual Practices I – IV
Series of participatory workshops
The Maria Project, Mariakirken
2021-2022
Springing from a residency at Maria Church on Istedgade, Copenhagen, Kin Matter – Ritual Practices I-IV was developed in the context of the social-ethical art project The Maria Project curated by Matthias Borello.
Kin Matter – Ritual Practices I-IV investigate how the notion of kinship can be extended to non-human life forms and materials in the context of the church and its services for people with urgent needs for sleep, food and social life. The series of multi-sensual Ritual Practices were facilitating relational practices with life sustaining matters: fire, clay, sourdough and textiles. Through the different workshops connections between the different users of the church and the materiality are deepened and expanded into a growing and living installation.
The community and workshop-based process culminated into Kin Matter – Ritual Practice V, a large participatory performance which as an alternative ritual for Maria Church invited for intimate connection to our existence, each other and the materials that sustain us.
Sound artist and musician Thilde Fjord Madsen composed and performed the sound for the entire project based on research done throughout the process.
Kin Matter – Ritual Practice I
Intervention with cob in church service and participatory building of clay oven in front of the church at Maria Church Square with Randi Kjær. Sound by Thilde Fjord Madsen.
J&K, Kin Matter – Ritual Practice I, The Maria Project, Copenhagen, 2021, photos: J&K and The Maria Project.
Kin Matter – Ritual Practice II
Meditation with clay and production of drinking vessels during a ceramic workshop at the Maria Church. Sound by Thilde Fjord Madsen.
Kin Matter – Ritual Practice III
Participatory bread making with resident sourdough at Maria Church and public baking of bread in the clay oven constructed during Ritual Practice I at Maria Church Square. Sound by Thilde Fjord Madsen
Kin Matter – Ritual Practice IV
Sewing and hand knitting workshop creating connecting and warmth-giving materials. Guided meditation for rest and sleep during the night shelter at the church. Sound by Thilde Fjord Madsen. Materials sponsored by Kirkens Korshær.
Kin Matter – symposium
With the intent to potentially indicate a direction for future relationships between humans, other species, resources and matter the symposium brought together a number of religious, ritualistic, social-ethical, activist and artistic practices.
During the symposium the audience was working with finger knitting and food was cooked in the church that was served afterwards.
Participants: Poet, performance artist and practitioner of nature rituals Shëkufe Tadayoni Heiberg, designer and food activist Zeenath Hasan, professor of political science with a special focus on new materialism and climate change Lars Tønder, and theologian and bioethicist Mickey Gjerris. Moderator: Ida Bencke
More on Kin Matter
Read more about Kin Matter and the other projects in Maria Projektet – Et socialetisk kunstprojekt i Mariakirken på Vesterbro 2021 – 2023 by Matthias Borello.
Interview with J&K on artmatter.dk
Radio interview with J&K on DR1: