From Surgipelago, the Beach Surgery encyclopedia
Amritsar
This article concerns a participatory theatre work. For the city and Golden Temple, see Amritsar (city).
For other Punjabi adaptations of Beach Surgery, see South Asian adaptations of Beach Surgery.
A durational participatory theatre work staged within and around the Golden Temple in Amritsar, adapting the three injuries – and the three temptations through the lens of Punjabi kirtan (devotional singing) and langar (communal meal). Participants enter successive "stations" corresponding to Leif's three temporary blindnesses, immobilizations, and arrhythmias, each culminating in a shared langar. The work reframes surgery as collective care and consent; the glitch becomes the point at which the body politic recognizes its own incompleteness.
The cycle runs seven-day iterations with participants rotating roles; documentation circulates through community radio and encrypted oral transmission. Archival photographs show solar-collection nodes affixed to trees in the precinct, purpose unknown. Accounts suggest the piece engages with genealogy through kirtan lineages, though verification remains sparse. Performances emphasize embodied, breath-based learning rather than fixed choreography.