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TRANSFORMATION RITUALS IN THE PERFORMANCES OF JUDIT KELE
allowed, marriages are already determined in childhood, so these economic
negotiations can take place until the parties reach the age of marriage and
actually carry out the life-long bond.?é
By putting her own body on the market, Judit Kele not only raised the
interest of the representatives of the visa system of the time, but also drew at¬
tention to the focus on the human body in the thinking of that time, which is
still dominant in the life of the theater of today. It is about a series of events in
which the importance of the body takes over the significance of the text. This
is especially true for the performance genre — even if it is also experienced in
some plays — where the omnipresence of the acting body has a strong impact
on the audience.”’
During the so-called proposal made by the woman, the customary, neces¬
sary, event-appropriate lines were not uttered, the occasion did not take place
in the way that would have been the social norm, as it would not tie in with
the auction format in any way. With the wedding, then, an irrevocable change
of status occurs, as in any transitional ritual.’’ Contrary to tradition, the man
did not go down on bended knee, did not offer a ring to the woman after pro¬
posing or exchanging vows, nor did he ask the question with which the whole
ritual begins: “Will you marry me?” The exceptional nature of the event is
fully reinforced by the fact that the parties preparing to marry each other were
strangers, and their purpose was not to get to know each other. If we treat Judit
Kele’s two marriages — the one before Tamet and the one with Tamet — as
two different realities, the transition was a “light” divorce for her, as she broke
her oath with her previous husband for the sake of a new marriage. For many
people, divorce rituals unfold in a simple way: all that is needed is for “the
wife to leave the marital home,” or it is enough for “the husband to dump the
woman.” According to the sources of ethnographic literature, divorce seems
to be such an effortless move, but van Gennep thinks that the sources of
ethnographic literature only examine the legal and economic side of divorce,
overlooking the very serious detrimental psychological and/or spiritual fallout.
Just as with marriage, divorce has its own traditions, and in break-ups there
can be the same repercussions on the individual and on society as when people
make their initial vows.”
The news of the auction also reached Hungary, where it was not well re¬
garded, furthermore the artist’s visa had expired, so she would have to leave
Paris and go home to hold the wedding ceremony. The new venue was the Oc¬
togon wedding hall in Budapest, where the ceremony, too, did not go smoothly.
26 Gennep: Ibid., 129-130.
” Erving Goffman: The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life, New York, Doubleday, 1959, 22.
Richard Schechner: A performance. Esszék a színházi előadás elméletéről. trans. János Regős,
Budapest, Múzsák, 1989, 104.
2 Gennep: Ibid., 147.
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