Joseph Baan (also known as Josephine, Jo, or any variation thereof) is interested in the complexities of collectivity and in the possibility of establishing a solidarity that does not homogenise, but affirms difference. They make performances, installations, texts, group works, collaborative formats, and scores that explore the spaces and relationships between the flesh and the word; change and preservation; and roles and readings of power and control in relation to affect and gestures of care. Their practice engages in art, education and collaboration as ways to forge creative resurgence and to investigate ways of beings together otherwise. Their current research focuses on the liberatory potential of performance practices, proposing performance as a means to—individually and collectively—interrogate and negotiate the constraints (gender, nationality, race, economic mobility, etc.) that one is borne into.
Reminiscent Armours
Joseph Baan, Monika Gabriela Dorniak
Our largest somatic organ, the skin, acts both as our protective shield and porous connection to the external world. The experience of sexual assault and violence can alienate our relationship to our skin, as it seemingly failed to protect us from a traumatic event. Within this two-day-workshop we will apply somatic scores, exchange about philosophical queer-feminist theories and use established practices, such as Feldenkrais-Method, with the intention to revisit our skin as an archive of memories, and reconcile with our somatic sensory neurons in the present.
Monika Dorniak's workshop takes place upon invitation by Tanzhaus Accomplice Joseph Baan, and occurs within the framework of Structures of Unfeeling: a performative learning environment that uses the exhibition format for the formation of a public culture around sexualised violence. Initiated by SOHERE (Joseph Baan, wolf engelen, Vanessa Jane Phaff) and taking place in BINZ39 and Tanzhaus, Structures of Unfeeling brings together a diverse group of practitioners from the fields of art, education, music, performance, dramaturgy, and academia, who have all in different ways been impacted and inscribed by histories of sexualised violence. By means of spatial interventions, works of art, a reader, an open-access archive and printing room, seminars and workshops, a symposium, and a programme of concerts, night vigils, and film screenings, the programme provides a diverse and comprehensive environment to foster conversation, collective thinking and making, and a discursive framework to encounter the topic of sexualised violence through aesthetic, material, embodied, and theoretical means. For more information on the programme visit: josephinebaan.com/Structures-of-Unfeeling
Information
The workshop will be held in spoken English, follow-up questions for clarification can also be asked in German. Please note that this workshop will provide the time and space to talk about personal experiences of sexual assault and violence – with the aim to create a caring and supportive network between the participants. The sharing of personal experiences is optional, and participants can also choose to remain silent.
Some scores that are shared within the workshop may propose optional physical contact with other participants, with mutual consent being sought first. We highly recommend to attend both days of the workshop, as the content and activities that are shared on each day relate to one another.
No prior knowledge required.
- Bühne 2
Tanzhaus Zürich
Wasserwerkstrasse 129
8037 Zürich - Wheelchair accessible
Online Event
The dates marked as "Online Event" take place exclusively via livestream on the internet and not on-site.
Wipkingerpark
Festival site Zürcher Theater Spektakel / Saffainsel
Kulturama
Museum der Anthropologie
Tanzhaus Zürich
Tanzhaus Zürich
- Wheelchair accessible
Picture: Monika Dorniak, Metacognitive Tool, 2016, London
Monika Gabriela Dorniak is a German-Polish artist with an interdisciplinary background in choreography, psychology and design, who often merges media – specifically performance, (textile) sculpture and text-based scores. In her practice-based research she is exploring the structures of the Self through a multifaceted analysis of body, mind and environment, by taking into consideration the regressive history of the domination of nature, and social power structures. Since 2024 she is a fellow in the art- and science-based PhD program between HfK Bremen and HDK Valand in Gothenburg.
Her works were presented at international institutions, such as Kindl Berlin (48 Stunden Neukölln, 2024), Nationalgalerie Vilnius (2023), Drugo Mare in Rijeka (2022), Uferstudios Berlin (2021), Tate Exchange at Tate Modern London (2017 & 2018), Arts Catalyst in London (2016), Foreign Affairs Festival at Berliner Festspiele (2014), and as guest lecturer at SOAS University of London (2022), Garage Museum in Moscow (2019), Al-Quds Bard College in Palestine (2018), and Chelsea College in London (2017). Dorniak holds a Master Degree in Art and Science (Department Fine Art) from the Central Saint Martins in London (2017).
