Vision Forum and Morgondagens konstpublik are together developing a performance project that takes its starting point in contemporary research on inter-personal touch. Scientific results show that inter-personal and affectionate touch is getting increasingly sparse. This trend, in turn, creates social problems and poses a threat to human well-being. The project brings together creators (musicians, dancers, writers and visual artists ) to a set of workshops. In the process we will use methodologies that are unique to dance and performance. These somatic practices (that focus on the experience of the body rather than its aesthetic outer appearance) constitute a tool to investigate the complexity of human nature and human interaction. By alternating between bodily exercises and related theoretical discussions, we can move beyond genres, disciplines and national borders. The project brings together different forms of knowledge (scientific, artistic, medicinal) that otherwise would be separated. The group will collectively explore how artists together can develop new and unique artistic and performative expressions by working across genres.

Each workshop will be 3-10 days long. The practical and theoretical exercises that are undertaken with the aim that the artists should test and develop their feeling of their bodies. All with the goal of to overcoming fear and to feel intelligent, beautiful and safe together. Currently we are planning two workshops in Stockholm, Sweden and one in Jakobsdal, Finland.

Through the process the group cooks and eats collectively. The participants are also actively engaged in forming topics for discussion as well as shaping the collective exercises. Many workshops will include public work-in-progress presentations where the audience becomes engaged in the performances.

Participants
Gabriel Widing (Theatre director) Ann-Christin Berg Kongsness (Choreographer) Malin Björnsdotter (Neuroscientist) Olav Westphalen (Visual artist) Annemarie Goldschmidt (Specialized Kinesiologist) Predrag Petrovic (Neuroscientist) Järva Engman (Actress) Per Huttner (Visual artist) Emilia Rota (Fashion designer)  Tuuli Maala (Visual artist) Sara Gurevitsch (Choreographer) and Carima Neusser (Choreographer). The project is supported by the City of Stockholm and Svenska kulturfonden in Helsinki.