Brief what happened PART JUURAK:
Performance Therapy (a term used, while conciously not fully knowing what it is) means doing things (tasks) and expecting the tasks to work on us therapeutically.
Little story about watching an episode of Moomins with the 4 year old kid, in which a child had become invisible, because their care-taker had been overly sarcastic. Identifying with that character a little bit too strongly.
Proposing to stand in circle where everyone will state their name, their name for the session, their pronoun, mood and the mood they wish to have by the end of the hour. Noting it down on a flip-board.
1. Work-meditation led by Juurak (now named This Person), participants breathe deeply and exaggeratedly while Juurak brings up all the topics that are usually associated with dread and discomfort (for example: where else you could be instead of being here, your financial situation, conflicts with loved ones, frustration about not being able to be present to the present moment etc)
2. dance like you are at a bad party
3. call out the word “work” as a bird cry
4. For whom the wind blows - a known game where there are one less chairs in a circle than participants. the person in the middle says a true statement such as: The wind blows for people who don’t like icecream, and anyone in the room for whom this is also true will have have to run for another chair.
In this first part of the series,
Kroot Juurak and Jasmin Schaitl shared
their respective practices working with faciliation
through two different approaches. The afternoon was
divided in two parts that stimulated a dialogue around how to
facilitate immaterial material; daring to not only create a situation of comfort,
but dealing or allowing also discomfort. The shared performative
practices focused on emotions, memory and time as tools to
facilitate and lenses to perceive own participation.
After each session, the artists gave interviews
in which they articulated experiences
of facilitating zones of trust that
allow for experimentation,
failure and challenging
emotions.
Brief about what happened PART SCHAITL:
_____
Handing out a set of cards for each person.
Title "Anchoring the past in the present. Holding memories in your hands."
Cards contain instructions to read and follow, until the instruction is to wait. Each person receives a aluminium wire in the length of both arms stretched.
Schaitl reads and guides through the process of, while peopl hold wire in their hands, lying on the ground. References of various theorists and topics on memory, haptic sense, time lines. (about 10 min)
Instructing a memorization process, where each person can revisit a joyful memory of their past, and re-situate it in the present moment. (20 min)
During this process, each person can shape the wire intuitively.
Finding keywords fitting the memory and writing them on paper notes, hung with string on each aluminium wire.
Placing or hanging the wire in the space. Exchange and discussion.
22.October 2022,
Krõõt Juurak & Jasmin Schaitl
@ APL Studio, Univ. of applied Arts, Vienna
# Emotion/Time, (Dis)comfort, Dialogue, Memory, Zone
Who are we does (not) change who we want to be.
Exploring, following and (un)working directions in our bodies and memories. Moving from comfortable to less comfortable and back.
Interview excerpts Schaitl
"[...] I felt like a provider of the possibility to enter a joyful memory and reconnect it in yourself."
"Though it made me disconnected to the others, being a provider and offering the practice."
"I was aware that some people might fall asleep, I like when people are bored, I think it creates another type of creativity."
"Make people more self-authors of their own experiences. As a provider I only set the frame for them to engage in own authorship about their emotional thoughts. Self-responsible memory."
Krõõt Juurak works as an artist, performer, comedian, dancer, curator, choreographer and teacher. Their work is always immaterial, and often driven by the context rather than content.
Jasmin Schaitl researches at the intersection of haptics and memory using performtive methods enriched by mindfulness-based strategies as well as contemplative neuroscience.
Drawing Documentation by Verena Frauenlob from the participatory situation facilitated by Juurak & Schaitl
Interview excerpts Juurak
"Its not a therapeutic method its an art practice. I dont see a need to label it more than that."
"When I feel like obliged to deliver a service, I try to let go to excell or do well. Not to impress you all. Cause its great to do and satisfying, but there can be moments when its for me as well satisfying. Maybe thats my focus right now. "
- What was the purpose of todays session? -
"I heard a statement that I agree on: Is giving a show, a form of well paid babysitting?
In a performance or show, we have an hour, so what I am gonna do so you are not bored in this time? That is the situation we are in. The other is, what am I gonna do so I dont fall asleep?"
"I found out I am a people's pleaser, and I tend to please people who are actually difficult to please."