Workshop | Somatic Liberation

The Somatic Liberation led by Guadalupe Aldrete and Negin Rezaie, is a performative workshop designed for adults as part of the Avantgarde and Liberation exhibition. The workshop includes a guided tour of the exhibition, somatic warm-up sessions, and immersive performative activities. The workshop experience will comprise different artistic techniques such as performance, drawing and installation art.

The 3-hour workshop at mumok begins with a guided exhibition tour by an art and cultural mediator. Interactions between artists, participants, and selected artworks from the Avantgarde and Liberation exhibition are central to the experience. Participants will undergo a special meditative warm-up at the exhibition space to prepare them for a heightened sensitivity, facilitating deeper communication with the objects and their personal memories.

Upon returning to the workshop rooms, participants will engage in a somatic research session to ground themselves and open up within the space. The session will progress from drawing on paper in the initial stage to painting on textiles in the final stage. The ultimate goal is to collaboratively create immersive installations that blur the boundaries between art, architecture, the body as a form of architecture and archive of memory, liberation, and the environment."

In this workshop, Guadalupe and Negin combine their performative practices to create an immersive atmosphere for decolonizing bodies as archives of memory. 

The artists will implement, within an “auto-theoretical” approach, various techniques, including Tamalpa method, diverse breathing techniques and Zaar, a ritual from south Iran. 

The application of "autotheory" fosters a non-binary interdisciplinary approach to knowledge, empowering participants to emancipate their voices, bodies, and minds from Eurocentric constraints. Facilitators provide supportive spaces for emotional processing, guiding participants through non-restricted periods to gain new perspectives and navigate challenges. This process benefits artists, dancers, writers, and other creatives, offering a wellspring of movements, images, stories, and landscapes.

In Somatic liberation the participants explore old memories stored in their bodies, uncovering intergenerational information related to their urge to protest or suppress. Through movement, drawing, and reflective writing, they connect with their inner selves and unleash creativity, guided by a non-linear approach that encourages free expression.