Community Care Day(s)

»Our bodies are an archive of trauma and discrimination but these bodies are simultaneously the ones that laugh, feel, comfort, embrace, protect and save each other.«
–Şeyda Kurt

We want to focus on having bodies, and being our bodies (Trịnh Thị Minh Hà). How do bodies hold stress, and how do we release it? In the words of Şeyda Kurt, how do these experiences influence us in our bodies and what role does rest take in it? Our findings, these practices and resources, will be made available to everyone. Because rest is also ruled by the capitalist market. Who has access to regular, sustainable forms of rest? Who feels good with resting instead of sitting with a bad conscience? Who has time and resources to take care of their bodies first? We want to approach these questions by centering COMMUNITY CARE. Making care and rest collectively more accessible. At the same time, detaching from the idea of individualist consumption-oriented self-care. During the residency we aim to further develop the concept of COMMUNITY CARE DAY(S) for QTIBIPOC in Berlin, lead by an experienced space holder at a queer- and BIPOC-centered space. They have experience in bodily approaches to rest, letting go, gathering strength, protecting ourselves and so on. We will develop, revisit, and collectively share strategies. But most importantly, make them fit to our lives so they will be sustainable. To do so, the second part of the project that will hopefully developed in the future will be audio-(visual) tutorials. Everyone on the internet should  have access to our bodily practices: as a daily routine, a ritual with our loved ones, or a check-in. Visually and aesthetically, the wellness market often exoticizes and appropriates various Asian cultures for profit. In our audio-(visual) tutorials, we will explore an aesthetic that distances itself from the white gaze.

Thùy Trang Nguyễn is passionate about deconstructing normative gazes and creating inclusive spaces and tools for visual storytelling. How we preserve and tell stories defines how we remember. Remembering means we will not be erased. So their movies talk about emotional and physical resilience throughout generations in the diaspora. Eating, sleeping, resting is their approach to resilience.

akiko soyja is moved by interruptions of binary thinking, by how we can connect various struggles and movements, and what societies do to our bodies. They feel rested when they spend time outside with friends, when their phone is turned off, when they come back to their body and when eating homemade meals.