July 2022, Rennes

Dear Anne,

I conducted a little experiment at A bout du Plongeoir. It was an instruction-based experience for an audience of four, sitting at a table. My aim was to find a simple and gentle way to reflect on our relationship with memory and death. At the end, we spoke with the audience, and they seemed moved, sharing fresh thoughts on the topic. Fabienne also participated and enjoyed it.

I believe this could be a good format, but I wonder if its effectiveness is due to the context—people here are accustomed to reflecting and sharing. Will it work in different settings? I will come back next year to follow up, it seems there is a chance to show this experiment to the masters of ceremony of a local alternative funerary.

I hope everything is going well at Atelier 231. Thank you for helping make this happen!

Best regards,

May 2023, Rennes

Dear Greg,

There’s something you mentioned after our rehearsal at the funerary kitchen with Lucile and Marine that keeps resonating with me. You said you all work with this topic every day, but during this experience, you felt a more personal connection with them. This connection happened without the need for words or direct interaction. It seemed to stem from the actions and thoughts suggested by the script, where each of you followed the instructions independently while still noticing each other's reactions. You said you had an inner journey and, at the same time, felt closer to the others.

This made me think about how scary it can be for some of us to address the topic of death, especially since society tends to keep it hidden. Perhaps it would feel less intimidating if there were a space to confront our thoughts and emotions privately, yet without feeling alone. I believe this is something the performance could provide. I will keep you updated on the project’s development. Thank you for allowing me to explore the Cooperative Funeraire de Rennes. It was a unique rehearsal, surrounded by all your tools, including the unpacked brand-new coffin. It was very much art facing a reality check.

Warm regards to everyone,

Cristina

April 2024, Pelt

Dear Anna,

Thank you for your support in the Open Day of (UN)COMMON SPACES! It was great to share the Infinite Game with several partners. Some thoughts after this: After performing for four people in that intimate shed, I’m uncertain how to approach our upcoming outdoor rehearsal in Tàrrega.

You see, the last round happened so late that after the first five minutes, the lights automatically turned off, and we decided to continue in darkness, occasionally using one or two phone lamps to read. The performance went into a place I didn’t know it could reach; it felt almost like a séance, infused with mystery and the deeply human experience of making space for memories and emotions.

I don’t think we can go so deep with 40 people and outdoors in plain daylight. So now I wonder what will be left if the inner journey is not as strong or not there at all? Will there be too much distractors? I suppose we’ll find out soon enough.

But I’m happy we are testing it because I want to open this topic to as many people as possible. And mainly because if it works to some degree, it will challenge our conception of intimacy. Perhaps there are forms of intimacy we aren’t so familiar with that will arise in a larger group? Thank you for giving space to this test and taking the risk to find out.

Una abraçada,

La Cristina

May 2024, Tarrega

Dear Florent,

The rehearsal in Tàrrega went really well with 40 people! It was quite different from what you saw in that small shed in Pelt, but the audience was still moved, and some even shared personal stories afterward. The core of the piece still worked, though in a more subtle way.

We’re still figuring out the sound. I was worried people wouldn’t be able to fully immerse themselves in their inner journey so we used headphones for some of the audience members, but it turned out that they felt too isolated from the environment—especially because we were sitting under two huge trees. The rest listened through traditional big speakers, like at a concert, but that felt too loud and overpowering for something so intimate in the natural setting of Sant Eloi Park.

Joan, our sound artist, came up with a compromise: to placed one small speaker on each table. We have resolved all the connectivity issues and believe this will feel more personal than the big speakers while still allowing the audience to hear the natural sounds around them. So we are looking forward to implementing this version in HAPU and learn how it works for your audience in Prishtina’s City Park.

See you soon!

Cristina

September 2024, Prishtina

Dear Fanni,

It was great catching up with you in Prague! I've been thinking about our conversation  about the flexibility that artworks need to truely adapt to the specific realities of public space in each context. You might remember I had some concerns that Infinite Game, which is meticulously structured with little room for improvisation, might not be flexible enough.

But something happened during our performances in Kosovo that changed my perspective. While setting up in the City Park, a pack of wild dogs approached us. We’d been warned about them, so we kept working, and the dogs just stayed with us the whole day, peacefully lying next to the audience during the performance.

In one show, as the audience went inward with closed eyes, the dogs also fell into a calm rest. It was unexpected but felt like a natural alignment between the meditative journey and the environment—or maybe the other way around! For the rest of the performances, the dogs' presence became part of the experience, sometimes barking when someone approached, but somehow in sync with the rhythm of the piece. Even someone afraid of dogs chose to stay, despite not being able to fully relax.

This made me realize Infinite Game has a subtle flexibility that allows it to adapt to its surroundings, creating a bridge between personal introspection and connection to the environment.

The crew joked about updating the description to "a meditative experience for humans, dogs, and anything paying attention.” Maybe there’s some truth in that!

Looking forward to our next meeting,

Cristina

September 2024, Rennes

Dear Marketa,

I’ve got some exciting news! What we talked about earlier this year is finally happening. Back then, we imagined this project as more than just a performance—maybe a series of workshops, or even a sort of school. Well, on this tour, it’s taken on many different forms.

In HAPU, Infinite Game was a public space performance and I also got the chance to collect audiovisual material from local specialists for the research. At Fira Tarrega, we performed for three days and also took part in Conversaciones Cruzadas, discussing the topic of death with other artists and the audience. In Rennes, we opened the Festival de la Mort (organized by the local funeral services) and participated in a talk alongside a sociologist and local artist, reflecting on the use of objects in art and mourning. We also introduced Flirting with Finitude, a pop up travel agency offering inner journeys through short audio walks and immersive experiences without the need for previous reservations. At Atelier 231, Infinite Game was the foundation for Weekend Mortel, an evening event where the audience enjoyed a thematic buffet after the show and joined a discussion with two local funeral cooperatives and Fabienne as a mediator.

In each location, Infinite Game became part of a larger framework that combined experience, reflection, and conversation. This setup created a variety of dialogues with the audience, and with them we’ve learned a lot about how the project can evolve. Some people shared personal experiences beyond the performance.

It’s amazing what people open up about when they’re moved and reflecting on death. We have been discussing how important it is to collect these testimonies. If our aim was to diversify the relationship people have with death, I think these new insights and stories could be a rich collection of fresh perspectives to inspire other people.

I would love if we could find a time for us to grab a drink and imagine how the experiences from this tour could bring something special back to Prague!

Thanks for all your support,

Cristina

October 2024, Prague

Dear Katrien,

I wanted to update you on the Infinite Game project since you showed interest in it back in Pelt. Over the past year, I've tested it in various contexts and formats. After performing for over 350 people this past month, I've realized how adaptable this performance can be—not just in size, but also in how it interacts with its context.

Remember that walk I designed during the Metropolis residency at Assistens Cemetery? It ended at an observatory marked by stones, each linked to its surroundings by threads. Standing in that observatory, you could see connections to various things: a gravestone, a growing tree, a hidden stone. I now think of Infinite Game as that observatory; the performance allows you to observe diverse ideas about death—some familiar, some distant, and some you might not have noticed before.

After the experiences of the recent tour, I think this performance, in combination with other practices, becomes a super potent observatory of the topic and the role of art itself!

From the Infinite Game, you can see how art can prepare minds and connect and collaborate with diverse practices—like a sociologist’s talk on objects and mourning, a chef’s buffet with a humorous food interpretation of the topic, a parade advocating for death’s visibility, or funeral activists creating new options and methods to transform death culture into a healthier practice.

At this point, from this observatory, I can see the connection of my practice to other fields in society, both close and distant, some I couldn’t imagine were possible.

It feels like a full circle that started back in Copenhagen in 2018, standing near death and wanting to observe all the things that surround it.

I hope everything is going well over there, greetings to Trevor!