Solidarity is a Verb.
Solidarity is a verb. But what do we act out? In ‘Pedagogy of the Oppressed’, Paulo Freire writes, “[s]olidarity requires that one enters into the situation of those with whom one is in solidarity [and] means fighting at their side to transform the objective reality.”* But what happens if this relationship is disturbed or becomes unfathomable due to increasing scale, for example the construction of collective forms of identification like the formulation of a “North” or a “South”, oppressor and oppressed, “we” and “them”? In the workshop we critically investigated and reflected on ‘doing solidarity’ through practices of embodiment and kinaesthetic empathy. We built a collective and safe space to explore, how the body functions as a tool for reflection in various diametric spaces such as the political and personal or the collective and individual. Through bodily exercises and performative research methodologies, we deconstructed complexities by looking at the mundane, in order to explore and rethink structures of social relations.
*Paulo Freire, Pedagogy of the Oppressed (1970, p.49)
ADMISSION CRITERIA / PARTICIPANTS REQUIREMENTS
Preferred admission criteria:
- Since we will explore body-based practices, be aware that we will use our bodies and sensual experiences as main material
- You have big questions, are occupied with the challenges of our times and socio-political topics or movements (e.g. intersectional feminism, anti-racism, post-colonial struggles)
- Your are preferably age 18 or older
- You can communicate in German or English
Who should attend?
- Those seeking an opportunity to experiment in an environment without the limitations of professional life and where the only rule is the need to be respectful
- Experience designers, performance or movement artists, curators, art therapists, visual artists, interdisciplinary practitioners, activists with a curious and critical mind and a compassionate presence are warmly invited
- In the workshop we want to build a collective and safe space for people with a plurality of backgrounds and life experiences
Vivien Tauchmann (DE)
Vivien Tauchmann is a designer, researcher and educator, exploring socio-political relations through embodied and kinaesthetic approaches. By positioning the human body as relational material, she seeks to expose and confront aspects of man-made infrastructure and subvert processes which seem to constitute social and cultural boundaries of power and injustice. Her on-going project, “Self-As-Other-Trainings”, was part of different workshops and events, including “Stay LIVE at Home!” by Performistanbul, “INSIST 2” at KU Leuven, and “the new local” in Brussels. In addition to her own work, she is a visiting lecturer for performative design methodologies at Design Academy Eindhoven, Jan van Eyck Academy, and Sandberg Instituut Amsterdam. She is active in several initiatives, like the Clean Clothes Campaign. Vivien graduated from the Faculty of Applied Arts in Schneeberg and with a Masters in Social Design from Design Academy Eindhoven. She is based in Leipzig.
vivientauchmann.com
