Momento Mori is an attempt to slow down time, a proposal to reflect on the submersion of the putrefaction of vital forces and their necrosis in our selective memory. Robert Kusmirowski decided to deal with a particular moment of a slowly dying person in a basement nook. A moment which, on the one hand, we wish to avoid but paradoxically we are also very attracted to.

An old person is preparing his burial suit for his own funeral service. Replete with a monochromatic outfit, a suitcase will be “carried” into different shows and performances during Konfrontacje Teatralne Festival. Will the suitcase which carries the notion of death disturb the program of the festival? Or will the festival adopt it as an artistic intervention or a dark, portentous surprise? Will anyone take it and make use of it? And how would the aesthetic of the suitcase be perceived? As a grotesque object or in a serious way? There is also a moral question of the right to observe and interfere with such an intimate moment which this object represents.

Whenever it appears in the public space, the suitcase can contain different meanings. It can be interpreted as trash, an unwanted object and also, given the historical context of Lublin, as a reminiscence of Majdanek, a central point in the landscape of the city which still creates echoes especially in art and culture. The depiction of this event is a leitmotiv and a transitory motif of the prepared performative ritual of the very last hours before death. Through interpretations and reactions, words and gestures of those who are still alive, we will learn about death.