Spartan Children - Prologue
Spartan Children - The Mountain
The question, wether or not some people enjoy or realize the fact that they are alive, was one that seems to have no answer, and is dangerous to answer. Deciding on the worthiness of life of another person is something that is hard to do in Western society. But during Spartan times, it was another custom, another ritual. Infants were judged at birth by ritually bathing them in wine. If they were “ill-born or deformed”, the children were left out in the open sun to die. In Roman literature, this was transformed into “throwing the baby’s off of cliffs”, something that probably never happened.
The performance shows a modern reinterpretation of the Spartan ritual, mixing the ancient custom with contemporary questions. The remnants of the performance were shown in the exhibition “Process”, together with a video recording of the performance.