Performance ‘Osiris and Fernanda Romero’

A proposed performance in between what is intimacy and what is universal. I would like to explore the effect of time in a transformation of feeling while creating a new identity named Fernanda Romero an obvious Latin American name. The identity will be consisting of a combination of performance and photography presented with cyanotypes.

The work is an open dialogue with my personal experiences in Medellin and Saqqara a city in Egypt that was build close to the river Nile and is historically connected to Memphis that serves as a cemetery. Saqqara is the largest necropolis of all Egypt and the one in which traces of all-important epochs of Egypt’s long and distinguished history can be found. During Dynasty III, the Step Pyramid was built by Imhotep for King Djoser 2620 – 2600 B.C. Until Dynasty III the traditional form of a royal tomb was a mastaba. The Step Pyramid was originally conceived as such but at some point was altered and was the first monumental architectural ensemble in of all Egypt to employ stone as its exclusive material. In this place the tomb for king Horemheb is to be found. Horemheb was a pharaoh and has a second tomb in the Valley of Kings, another geographical location in Egypt. This Tomb contains religious scenes depicting the Am Duat (Book of That Which is in the Netherworld) a religious handbook, divided into hours, and intended to provide the spells and charms necessary to nullify the forces of darkness during the twelve-hour nocturnal journey to the Hereafter. This work is a synthesis of acute astronomical observations and religious speculations.

Recently I bought a ring that depictures Osiris and a pharaoh that for me symbolizes Horemheb. Horemheb pulls out his arm to Osiris to touch him in some sort of ritual. I thought it could be symbolic for the transition of human life into the Hereafter, or as Osiris is the ‘God of eternal life’ the transition to eternal life. Ever since I arrived in Medellin I was obsessed with this ring. I kept wearing it and imagining it was protecting me against evil forces. The fact that I would like to create a double identity for me connected me to pharaoh Horemheb that had two tombs for one body. The Tomb in the Valley of Kings contains many paintings of Osiris and Horemheb together. In the performance there is a play with this idea of a double personality and the mix of these personal experiences in Medellin connected to a journey of geographical places of Frenanda Romero in Egypt.

Sarojini Lewis