ABSTRACT
This chapter engages with the techniques, practices, and materialities involved in the reenactment of sacred suffering and bodily stigmatization in and beyond the Passion play. It investigates the materiality of human body hair and its potential to be charged with charisma deriving from the performance of the Passion and the sacred figures embodied on stage. Since the early 19th century, the hair and beard decree (Haar- und Barterlass) obliges the impersonators of the biblical figures in Oberammergau to letting their hair and beards grow from Ash Wednesday of the year before each Passion play season until the dernière. It is considered how the presumed ‘naturalness’ of hair has been generating authenticity and materializing devotion, thus functioning as an interface of holiness and a reservoir of time. To explore how the hair of Oberammergau matters beyond the Passion play, the chapter discusses an exhibition in the context of the 2022 Passion play season, resulting from an artistic research project involving the last season’s performers’ hair.
