Dávid Somló Ritual Study #5: Refuge in the Masses

In many cultures around the world, social rituals are an integral part of everyday life: they are woven into the fabric of the public space, whether through sounds (e.g., the muezzin), repetitive actions, or collective presence. These practices do not divide the levels of transcendent, collective, and individual existence, but rather interweave them within the rhythm of everyday life.

On this occasion, through collective actions and spatial mass movements, we will explore how being together can create a shared space of attention and perception—a temporary sense of unity that, even amidst urban fragmentation, can offer the liberating experience of connection and belonging. For the final session, Dávid Somló’s collaborating partner will once again be performance and media artist Richárd Melykó.

About the series:

How do rituals create a community without communication? What happens to our attention and perception of time when we no longer have methods for pausing or closure?

In his five-session lecture workshop series, Dávid Somló explores what remains—or what is missing—from community rituals in the accelerated everyday life of contemporary society. The artistic and theoretical starting point for this shared reflection is Byung-Chul Han's book The Disappearance of Rituals, while its practical form is inspired by elements of Somló's participatory art practice. The sessions unfold between thought-provoking theoretical discussions, participatory exercises, and impulses from invited guests (artists, researchers and others) on the topic.

Dávid Somló is a performance maker and sound artist based in Budapest, focusing on spatial-relational practices. Using simple elements, structures, and instructions, he composes performative experiences that evoke connectedness with one’s attention, body, surroundings, and the people around them. His works require active participation to varying degrees aiming to create frameworks where there are no right or wrong decisions, allowing the actions of the audience to manifest in a deeply personal and human way. The success of his recent project The Smallest Passage–where participants balanced an ordinary twig on the tiniest point of their knuckle–was the point of departure for the Ritual Study series.