Structures of Unfeeling
October 10 - November 7 at BINZ39, Tanzhaus, and ETH Zürich
With: SOHERE (wolf engelen, Vanessa Jane Phaff, Joseph Baan), Joshua Wicke, Luc Häfliger, Brit Barton, Monika Dorniak, Avgi Saketopoulou, Carolina Mendonça, bela, Ronce, Laura Leupi, and more TBA
Structures of Unfeeling is a performative learning environment that intends to use the exhibition format for the formation of a public culture around sexualised violence. Bringing together a diverse group of practitioners from the fields of contemporary art, education, music, performance, dramaturgy, and academia, many of whom have histories ofbeing subjected to sexualised violence or childhood sexual abuse, Structures of Unfeeling aims to collaboratively find form and voice for the generally unspeakable and unrepresentable nature of sexual trauma. By means of spatial interventions, works of art, a reader, an open-access archive and printing room, a seminar with architecture students, a symposium, workshops, and a programme of performances, night vigils, film screenings, and readings, the exhibition format 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.
PROGRAMME
October 10
17:00 - 21:00: opening of the exhibition at BINZ39
October 12 - 13
14:00 - 18:00: workshop Reminiscent Armours by Monika Dorniak. This event takes place in Tanzhaus Zürich, registration here
October 23
19:00: screening of Gregg Araki’s film Mysterious Skin & discussion of Lauren Berlant’s essay Structures of Unfeeling (please read in advance, download text here). This event takes place in BINZ39
October 21 – 25
open studio: (Un)Safe Spaces seminar week with students from the Department of Architecture, ETH
October 26 - 27
symposium Aesthetics of Survival with performances and contributions by Avgi Saketopoulou, Carolina Mendonça, bela, Ronce, and Luc Häflinger. Curated by Joshua Wicke (discourse and performance) and Luc Häflinger (Music) in dialogue with Joseph Baan. This event takes place in Tanzhaus Zürich, tickets and registration here
November 2
Night Vigil
November 7
17:00 - 21:00: finissage at BINZ39 with a reading by Laura Leupi
MORE INFO
Image: Monika Dorniak, Metacognitive Tool, 2016, London
Workshop: Reminiscent Armours
By Monika Gabriela DorniakDescription
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.
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.
Register for the workshop HERE
Bio
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).