research
public space
exposure

EXPOSURE:
PRACTICES OF
RECLAIMING SPACE
(2021)

A choreographic and body based action research aiming to create a 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.

M. Puig de la Bellacasa · Matters of Care. Speculative Ethics in More Than Human Worlds

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 also 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. We engage 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 fantasy 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 relations and emergent strategies.

CREDITS
Concept, research, facilitation & production: Dorota Michalak

Research & facilitation: Katerina Delakoura, Iro Grigoriadi

Participation, substantial and energetic contribution: participants of the workshops at Utopia Laboratory and Self-organized Free Theater EMPROS in Athens, all coincidental encounters, places, and atmosphere

Thanks to:
Μυροβόλος Μεταξουργείο, Mariana Kastalia, Ελπίδα Ταξιάρχη, 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)

SUPPORTED BY

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 in Intercultural Communication)

CARRIED OUT AT

Πλατεία Ιωάννη Δούρου at the Municipal Gallery of Athens, 4.7.2021

Utopia Laboratory - Athens (GR), June-July 2021

EMPROS - Athens (GR), June 202