Gestures and Territories of Death in Ashes

The aim of the GeTeM project is to carry out an exploratory investigation into the practices of scattering ashes outside the cemetery, and more specifically the places and gestures through which these practices take place in Grenoble's territories.

With the Covid-19 crisis, communes and funeral services have struggled to meet the need for concessions and support for bereaved families. The problem of cemetery saturation, but also the lack of adaptation of the funeral offer in relation to changing practices corresponding to growing ecological concerns were then revealed with a certain urgency. The still relatively recent rise of cremation in France has not led to a crystallization of practices and gestures around cremation, and we wish to explore the potential of Grenoble's territories and gestures around ash for the invention of new arrangements and rituals. These reflections allow us to include other proposals currently under debate concerning the decomposition of bodies (humusation, aquamation) and the relationship to these new materialities of remains in the context of bereavement without a body.