Spending an afternoon lying in an open grave isn’t exactly what most people might choose to do with their day, but an art project at Radboud University in Nijmegen is encouraging students, and anyone else who cares to join in, to do exactly that.

The ‘purification grave’ is the brainchild of John Hacking, one of the three student pastors at the university. Late this summer he spent a few days digging a grave in the grounds of the student church. His idea was that people could come and lie in it, contemplate their lives for some minutes, or hours, and come away with some fresh insight into where they were going in life – and why they were going there.

Life affirming
It might sound morbid but John Hacking says the project is intended to be life-affirming. He hopes younger people, who may be unwilling or unable to think about the fact that their life will come to an end at some point, to think about death in a way that will help them in life.

“People will experience something with their body, rather than just in their heads. University people, especially young people, are always sitting in their heads. Their feelings and emotions can be difficult for some of them to get in touch with. So I thought if I make a ‘purification grave’, they could lie in it - and see what happens.”

Hacking’s idea is that by taking some time out, and lying down in the open air, with a different horizon above you, the normal perspectives on everyday life might change, giving young people an opportunity to take time out from intellectual or worldly living and to think calmly about their lives.

Breaking taboos
Pastor Hacking is gathering together people’s experiences and compiling them as part of the project. He goes on to point out that actually climbing into the grave can break the taboo of death and start the contemplative process.

“When you think it is a grave – and you are going to die, then that is one thing. But you are alive, and life goes on around you,  the birds, the wind, the traffic, that is something else.”

So far, he says, the results have been positive, with students saying they have found the process worthwhile.  Ultimately he hopes that they will walk away feeling invigorated and reconnected with their lives – and their futures.

“I hope they feel that is was a good experience. And that it was a good time to do it, so that they feel like they are more rooted, looking at reality square on, and that they have to do something with their life. Life is important, you only get one chance, so make something of it.”
 

Listen to Paddy Maguire's report
 

Watch an RNW video on the project

And follow this link for more on the project