Client: City of Tucson
Location: Tucson, AZ, United States
Completion date: 2012
Project Team
Artistic Director
Joseph O'Connell
Creative Machines
Design & Fabrication firm
Creative Machines
Creative Machines
Overview
The All Souls Procession is an annual celebration and mourning of the lives of lost loved ones and ancestors. The event brings over 150,000 participants to Downtown Tucson each year in early November. Myriad altars, performers, installation art, and creatives of all kinds collaborate for almost half the year to prepare their offerings for this amazing event. The Procession is a sanctuary for community members from all walks of life to express their grief and loss in a celebration of creative energy and rejoicing of life.
After more than a decade of the All Souls Procession, there was a collective realization that there was a need for a focal point: a place to channel all the energy, grief, and joy of the Processants. Creative Machines was asked to create the Urn in 2012, a large, sculptural, steel vessel that is pulled at the front of the Procession. The Urn is a receptacle for mementos, prayers, messages, and remembrances of those we have loved and lost. At the culmination of the Finale, the Urn is burned, and the collective hopes, prayers, love, grief, memories, tributes, and remembrances are consumed by the flames and dissolve into the ether, bringing an end to another All Souls season.
​
Goals
The All Souls Procession is an annual celebration and mourning of the lives of lost loved ones and ancestors. The event brings over 150,000 participants to Downtown Tucson each year in early November. Myriad altars, performers, installation art, and creatives of all kinds collaborate for almost half the year to prepare their offerings for this amazing event. The Procession is a sanctuary for community members from all walks of life to express their grief and loss in a celebration of creative energy and rejoicing of life.
After more than a decade of the All Souls Procession, there was a collective realization that there was a need for a focal point: a place to channel all the energy, grief, and joy of the Processants. Creative Machines was asked to create the Urn in 2012, a large, sculptural, steel vessel that is pulled at the front of the Procession. The Urn is a receptacle for mementos, prayers, messages, and remembrances of those we have loved and lost. At the culmination of the Finale, the Urn is burned, and the collective hopes, prayers, love, grief, memories, tributes, and remembrances are consumed by the flames and dissolve into the ether, bringing an end to another All Souls season.
​
Additional Information
6' diameter