"Thinking about death in order to do something is already going against a natural impulse."

PalmThey meet just minutes ago when Harry Burns (played by Billy Crystal) asks Sally Albright (Meg Ryan) if she often thinks about death. "Of course!" she replies, almost automatically. "Yeah, sure," he counters, "it's just a fleeting thought you have now and then, and little more. I spend hours thinking about death; I can think about it for days."

This difference between the two protagonists of When Harry Met SallyThe distinction between one person who claims to have death present in their daily life and another who feels uncomfortable just hearing its name is applicable to differentiating many creators from the general population: numerous artists, at one point or another in their careers, have dedicated a work to exploring the end of life, whether their own or someone else's, making it a theme that most people try to avoid in their everyday conversations, except on special days like November 1st.

"The mere act of thinking about death to create a play, or a book, or anything else, is already going against a natural impulse," says playwright Marta Barceló, who has written the texts for plays such as Go to Saturn and back and Flood zoneInspired by the Sant Llorenç des Cardassar stream, these are two works where death was present. However, the piece in which she has most decisively explored this theme is one of her most recent: The last six daysThe play, which premiered last May, arose from the experience of her mother's final days. "There was a grief that was personal and real, but what I created was a fictional narrative based on that," Barceló shares, "because having lived through the experience gives me a set of tools and details that allow the work to be more believable and more human." While preparing the text, which she began writing more than a year after her mother's death, Barceló undertook extensive research, attending conferences for palliative care doctors and contacting bereavement support groups, among other things. Even so, she acknowledges that, in general, we all tend to live "with our backs turned to death." "And that's why I think it's so good that it's being discussed in the performing arts and the arts in general, so we can become aware that it's a natural process and that fear shouldn't control us. We don't like to think about it, but it's necessary: ​​the only thing we know for sure in this life is that we'll die."

A therapeutic gesture?

One person who has never turned her back on history, as her work demonstrates, is the writer Neus Canyelles, who was born on November 2nd. "For my birthday, we would go to the cemetery to visit my godparents and the other deceased and bring them flowers, so I've always had it very deeply ingrained, always carried it within me," shares Canyelles, who has experienced a number of significant losses in recent years, such as that of her mother. Miladyor that of his father, whom he speaks of in one of the stories that make up Waiting roomsThe author's next book, due out in February, explores the theme of death. "Death is one of the great universal themes, along with love and life," she reflects, "but it's true that it's the one thing we don't usually bring up in our conversations. I don't have social media, but from what I know, it's all about travel and parties and the dish you had at the last restaurant you went to," the author continues, "and it doesn't really make sense to post anything anywhere, but it's true that, in general, people never want to talk about it."

On the creative impulse that led her to write MiladyCanyelles confesses that there was no therapeutic intention, not even close. "I've never considered writing as a form of therapy because, to begin with, I don't like the concept of therapy, which has an increasingly broad meaning. I didn't expect to feel better after writing the book, nor was I looking for it. People tell you 'you have to grieve,' and it makes me laugh because I believe because I believe because I believe because I believe because I believe because I believe because it's not funny because I believe. expiration date," she states.

The death of the mother is a theme that other island writers have explored in recent books such as A submerged light, by Marc Cerdó, where the author has a painful and revealing conversation with his mother, the writer Xesca Ensenyat from Pollença. Or in the second poem of Augusta Hall followed by mother tongue, by Sebastià Alzamora, published last spring. It was not the first time, not by a long shot, that the writer and columnist for ARA Baleares had spoken of death in his verses. In fact, he debuted with a book of poems, RafaelThe poems, which arose from the death of a friend when they were still teenagers, were republished by Lleonard Muntaner just under a year ago. "It was the most overwhelming event that had ever happened to me," Alzamora acknowledged at the time in ARA Baleares, "and for years some verses had come to me, but I didn't know where to begin. Until I had the idea of ​​creating a dialogue with him as a common thread between the poems. I wanted to address my dead friend."

A process of evolution

However, it is not only the death of others that has nourished the work of Balearic creators in recent times. The death of oneself is more than present in Carme Riera's latest novel. A white shadow —in which the protagonist, opera singer Barbara Simpson, experiences one of the so-called Near-Death Experiences (NDEs) and is forced to reconstruct some traumatic episodes of her life—, and was one of the guiding threads of the album Jota de morir, of Marala. In the title track, in fact, singers Selma Bruna, Sandra Monfort, and Clara Fiol proclaimed that "if I leave, my friends, / weep, for I would weep. / If you ever look back, / let only joy remain." Neus Canyelles has also written about them in books such as The best vacation of my lifewhere, the author asserts, disappearance itself is treated from the perspective of "liberation." "There can be despair when writing about death, but also liberation from the torment that life sometimes is," she points out.

Another creator who has dedicated a significant part of her time to thinking about death, like Harry Burns, is Sílvia Ventayol, winner of the 2021 Palma City Audiovisual Award for the documentary Mrs. Death, where he reflected on the relationship with the deceased based on photographic practices post mortemFive years after filming, Ventayol admits that he still thinks about it because, in fact, he plans to make a sequel. Mr. Grief [Mr. Dol]"People find it strange that I dedicate myself to thinking about this, especially in a format like a documentary, because fiction, which usually deals with death, is one thing, and the codes of reality and everyday life, which we're not so used to, are another," he acknowledges. "And it amuses me because it's seen as something negative, that you do this, because everything related to death seems to be associated with depression, with darkness. And for me, it's evolution: trying to better understand what it means to die can help us live a little better."