Ongoing artistic research project looking into the relationship of chronic health conditions, creativity and artistic work.

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Chronic health conditions such as chronic pain, trauma and other states of complex discomfort have the potential to challenge norms of sickness and health, mind and body, as well as internal and external causalities. Often unseen in our societies, many people are having to integrate their ongoing complex state of discomfort into a system of health care, work and personal as well as societal politics that demands them to be diagnosed, to get better and to function efficiently nevertheless. Chronic states thus rupture the ideal of constant (economic) progress – but they also invite for an examination of what being whole means for each of us as. If it is true what dance practitioner Miranda Tufnell said, that “we cannot do it alone, we need others to heal” – what does that mean for our concepts of healing in communities and our co-existence with this planet?   

This project wants to gather a multiplicity of voices from members of diverse disciplines such as artists, health carers, social workers, healers, therapists, patients as well as scientists and theorists, looking into somatic techniques, crip art, medical practices and theories of the anthropocene.

Next to collecting these voices, a set of artistic tools will be created, focusing mainly on somatic practices and movement art. This collection of tools intends to emphasise the importance of imagination, touch and bodily wisdom as well as to investigate the aesthetics of dealing with chronic (health) conditions.

The outcomes will manifest in various formats such as (online) collections, performances, workshops, Long Table discussions and panels.

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