We will ask you, as if you could answer

Bleigiessen is probably a ritual of Celtic origins that is popularly carried out on New Year’s Eve in Germany. It consists of melting some pieces of tin (in the past it was done with lead) with the help of a candle. At the time of dissolving them, a question related to the future of the year that begins is asked. Afterwards, the molten pond is poured into the water, which immediately cools it, giving it a solid shape that is removed and interpreted as a possible answer to the question asked.

Within the framework of a research on non-human languages and forms of communication with water, this ritual is presented as a possibility to obtain manifestations of water that, in our eyes, result in asemic writing. We cannot understand them, they are written in a language that we do not know. However, the ritual allows us to maintain some type of relationship with the water, in which we ask it questions and it offers us answers. That is why, both in the video “We will ask you, as if you could answer”, and in the homonymous performance, questions directly related to the life of water are asked, such as: “when were you born?”, “what is the first landscape you saw?”, “have you ever known love?”, “are you afraid of something?”, “what is your death like?”, among others.

The answers are the pieces of tin that result from these acts. Solid and silent answers in a mysterious language.