A CHOREOGRAPHIC & BODY-BASED ACTION RESEARCH
How to createa receptive and generative space to reimagine
human-environmental relations?
In Exposed. Environmental Politics and Pleasures in Posthuman Times, Stacy Alaimo writes about the trans-corporeal subjects enmeshed with the world and exposed to material-semiotic interactions that create uneven hazards in the context of climate change. Through the notion of exposure, we aim to open a group reflection on human-environmental relations in a situated urban context by recognizing vulnerabilities, sensitivities and potentials deriving from our embeddedness in a specific glocal context.
The notion of reclaiming space is the central concept around which the work is organized. Following María Puig de la Bellacasa, we refer to reclaiming as a political work, an ongoing effort of questioning what is given for granted and inserting desirable qualities rendered non-existing.
In Exposed. Environmental Politics and Pleasures in Posthuman Times, Stacy Alaimo writes about the trans-corporeal subjects enmeshed with the world and exposed to material-semiotic interactions that create uneven hazards in the context of climate change. Through the notion of exposure, we aim to open a group reflection on human-environmental relations in a situated urban context by recognizing vulnerabilities, sensitivities and potentials deriving from our embeddedness in a specific glocal context.
The notion of reclaiming space is the central concept around which the work is organized. Following María Puig de la Bellacasa, we refer to reclaiming as a political work, an ongoing effort of questioning what is given for granted and inserting desirable qualities rendered non-existing.
We approach reclaiming from a deep fleshy core of ours. To that end, we work with the figure of a hypersensitive body, approached as a medical
condition - exposing a transcorporeal, dynamic co-constitutivity of bodies, pointing towards permeability and resistance - along with a masterful specialization in responsiveness. We ivestigate the qualities of merging and coinciding with the substance of the world.Within attuning to a hypersensitive state of the body we recognize a potential to practice alternative comprehension of the “environment” and the “entity”, fostering a sense of care, co-dependency,
responsibility, and agency in a process of shaping urban cohabitat.
EXPOSURE is a space of exchange and experimentation. Within a setting of affirmative
workshops we
investigate and exchange practices of
disobedience and practices of building alternative infrastructures by tuning into our personal, bodily,
and sensuous archives. Weengage in movement practices, listening sessions, and transmedial storytelling based on situated perspectives.We
recognize what constrains us and makes us helpless. At the same time, we open ourselves towards phantasy and play, following what excites and nourishes us.
The work culminates with an intervention in public space. In this process, we expose our needs and sensitivities, learn to negotiate with the existing infrastructures - entering into alliances and noticing when our interests are not aligned, we build an atmosphere of celebration and install public game triggering playful re-imaginations. We render public space generous, comfortable and inviting to spend time together, witness, dance, chat, and rest. Through our practice, we want to break out from the control of the public (state/system) and bring in the notion of commoning, inventing new relationships and their emergent strategies of co-existance.
The work culminates with an intervention in public space. In this process, we expose our needs and sensitivities, learn to negotiate with the existing infrastructures - entering into alliances and noticing when our interests are not aligned, we build an atmosphere of celebration and install public game triggering playful re-imaginations. We render public space generous, comfortable and inviting to spend time together, witness, dance, chat, and rest. Through our practice, we want to break out from the control of the public (state/system) and bring in the notion of commoning, inventing new relationships and their emergent strategies of co-existance.
PROGRAM:
CREATIVE TEAM:
Concept, research, facilitation & production Dorota Michalak
Research & facilitation Katerina Delakoura, Iro Grigoriadi
Thanks to Μυροβόλος Μεταξουργείο, participants of the workshops at Utopia Laboratory and Self-organized Free Theater EMPROS in Athens, Sunayana Shetty, Stergios Dinopoulos
Documentation Sunayana Shetty, Stergios Dinopoulos, Alekos & Christos Bourelias
Poster Yiannis Selimiotis
PARTNERS:
Utopia Laboratory in Athens (GR)
Self-organized Free Theater EMPROS in Athens (GR)
SUPPORT:
Beauftragte der Bundesregierung für Kultur und Medien im Programm NEUSTART KULTUR, Hilfsprogramm DIS-TANZEN des Dachverband Tanz Deutschland
Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznan (in the frame of MA thesis)
“PERHAPS OF THE FUTURE
TURNING THE SKIN INSIDE OUT
TO ACCEPT TO WELCOME HYPERSENSITIVE BODY
MERGING AND COINCIDING
WITH THE VERY SUBSTANCE OF THE WORLD
WHAT DO THEY NEED TO BE TAKEN CARE OF?
WE ARE EXCITED AND WE ARE HELPLESS
LEANING TO THE SADNESS
LEANING TO THE NUANCES OF THE NOISE
LEANING TO THE VOID
LEANING TO THE SURPRISES AND DOUBTS
MICRO RAVES OF THE FIELD”
“TILL YOU CAN’T EXPLAIN IF YOU STARTED THE SPIN OR THE SPIN STARTED YOU”
“TRANSFORM THE TENSION IMPLIED BY THE PLACE INTO SOMETHING AS NATURAL AS YOUR GRAVITY CENTER”
“STAYING LOW, REMAINING OPEN TO THE WORLD, BECOMING ATTUNED TO STRANGE AGENCIES”
“THINK ABOUT THAT WORD
ATTUNEMENT – IT IS BOTH HEARING WHAT IS GOING ON, REALLY DEEPLY LISTENING TO
MAKE SENSE OF THINGS – AND BRINGING ONSELF INTO RELATION WITH WHAT IS
HAPPENING.”
PRESS & MEDIA