Ritual Laboratory is an ongoing artistic practice/research that started as a five-part participatory lecture-workshop series held at Trafó House of Contemporary Arts, Budapest, between January and May 2026. Framed as a "free school," the series investigates what remains — or what is missing — of the experience of communal rituals in the accelerated everyday life of contemporary society. Its theoretical starting point is philosopher Byung-Chul Han's The Disappearance of Rituals, which describes rituals as repeated, formalised actions that create "community without communication"; its practical forms grow out of my participatory artistic methods. Each session combines a thought-provoking lecture, collective practice, and the contributions of invited guests versed in the topic, and can be attended separately or followed as a course.
The opening session, The Dis/Appearance of Ritual, introduced Han's thinking in Trafó's main hall, approached as a kind of sacral space. Ritual Togetherness examined self-help rituals, boredom challenges, and shared attention — ritual time as non-productive time that suspends the logic of performance and self-optimisation — joined by guests from the "Offline Reservation" (pseudo)movement. Faith in Symbols, Freedom in Restrictions explored how symbols work and how form and constraint can liberate, with a guest keeper of the Fehérholló Öskü táltos-shamanic tradition. The Deeply Honoured Meal turned to the ritual dimensions of eating, with Zen monks as guests and participants preparing and sharing food together. The closing session, Shelter in the Crowd, moved into public space: the transitional zones of Boráros tér became a contrast site for exploring how collective movement can create a temporary unity of consciousness amid urban fragmentation.
In May 2026, at the threshold of the end of Hungary's sixteen-year political regime, I initiated the NER Letting-Go Ritual — a collective rite of passage held around a fire in the forest of Normafa, Budapest, co-created with yoga therapist Gyöngyi Beer and theatre makers Péter Valcz and Luca Borsos. Through simple shared forms — walking, remembering, exchanging words with strangers, releasing, celebrating — some sixty participants processed together what a country had lived through. The evening moved between grief and liberation, offering a contemporary ritual frame for a collective transition that had no form of its own.
REVIEWS AND INTERVIEWS:
"When it came up that there would be a collective shouting session, my first thought was, Great, I'll just disappear into the group and no one will notice that I can't get a sound out. Instead, the atmosphere and the way the event unfolded somehow managed to open the tap in me too. (...) I ended up adding my voice to the collective volume. Later, during another defining moment of the evening, I had the chance to quietly reflect on what had actually happened to me since 2010." - Nóra Balkányi, Hvg Online
“Throughout the ritual, we repeatedly held on to one another, and there was something profoundly sustaining in that gesture: the sense that however alone we may feel in our pain, we are never entirely alone. The liberating force of collective vocal expression is both physical and psychological, but it is also an ancient communal experience. It allows grief, anger and helplessness to leave the body instead of remaining trapped inside it.” - Orsolya Bálint, Népszava
“ Rather than creating situations where people express themselves, I am interested in simple shared actions that suspend language and individual identity, allowing collective attention, care, and presence to emerge. For me, rituals are not primarily cultural traditions or symbolic representations, but practical forms that temporarily reorganize how we relate to one another, to our environment, and to ourselves. ” - Interview in Magyar Narancs
"Rather than continuously inventing new performances, I am interested in understanding, refining and transmitting performative forms that already prove capable of generating collective presence across different contexts. (...) The facilitator is not the author of the experience but its holder. The quality of attention emerges through carefully designed frameworks rather than through personal expression.“ - Interview in Népszava
AUDIENCE FEEDBACK:
"What struck me was how powerfully a really well-crafted ritual can create a peaceful connection between a pile of strangers. I never would have thought I could feel this close to 50 people this quickly."
"I'm an individualist, there's a strong urge in me to be different — and yet the longing to belong somewhere is terribly strong in me too, and that's what I lived through during the walking in circles."
"What stays with me most is perhaps the feeling of serene floating and playfulness. The session was full of thought-provoking moments I'll be digesting for a long time, but it was also wonderfully light."
"The experience that came up for me was connection independent of any social belonging — and how important the circle is."
"For me, this was a powerful confirmation of how vital rituals are."
"For me, the most interesting part was when we walked in circles in this river of people. It was like a protest where there's actually no anger in us — instead, as part of something larger, we pay attention to each other, while at the same time we stop performing. It was almost a religious experience."
"I need more rituals to be able to connect better with my fellow human beings."
"I WATCHED THE PEOPLE, I WATCHED THE FIRE, AND I THOUGHT: THIS SHOUTING, HERE AND LIKE THIS, IS COMPLETELY OKAY.
BECAUSE THE ANGER HAS TO BE LET OUT.
I CAN'T DO IT YET, UNFORTUNATELY.
THOUGH IT MUST FEEL REALLY GOOD TO SHOUT.
IN A PLACE LIKE THIS, WHERE SHOUTING IS ALLOWED.
I'VE NEVER FELT WHAT IT MIGHT BE LIKE TO BELONG SOMEWHERE.
NOW I GOT TO FEEL IT A LITTLE.
AND THIS IS A COMPLETELY NEW FEELING FOR ME."
(Panka Pataki, autist performer of Artmenők, after the NER Letting-Go Ritual)
