Save us from the void (2025)

ongoing research project

Save us from the void is an investigation of religious devotion, inspired by Saint Teresa of Ávila, sixteenth century Spanish icon, and self-actualization, obsession of late capitalism. I study connection between the void, often associated with a lack of meaning and consumptionism typical to atheists and agnostics forming late capitalistic societies in the Global North. In the same time I have been working with spiritual materialism, a phenomenon describing consumption of rituals and practices, belonging to other cultures, by consumers from Global North, to achieve symbolic profit in a form of spiritual growth. My research questions whether spiritual materialism can save us from the void?

Teresa's fixation on God's love becomes one with the cult of self-actualisation in a liminal space between the historical reality of sixteenth century Avilla and hyper individualised. As Simone de Beauvior would say, one is not born, but rather becomes a saint. I study self-actualisation as an ongoing project of subjectivisation in the individualised societies. Scenography and costumes were a collaboration with Denys Shantar, artist and researcher, who created a unique tapestry depicting myself in a traditional icon as a saint.

.The work in progress presentation of the research was shown in the frame of the residency ON_OFF_SPACE at De Singel in Antwerp:

https://desingel.be/en/programme/theatre/zuzanna-sosnowska-save-us-from-the-void