As Artist in Residence at ArtEZ (2023-2025), I have developed work together with pedagogue Matthew Rich-Tolsma that we now bring together under NOT WITHOUT THE ROSE, a Workshop for Social Sculpture. Inspired by the work of artist Joseph Beuys and educator Paolo Freire we focus on collective design for complex (social) situations and draw on the creative power of all participants.
Within the Workshop for Social Sculpture, we developed a way of working that we call Paradox-as-Praxis. In site and context specific Ateliers we share this practice. Diverse, vertically composed groups get to work, using materials, their own bodies, and each other, creating space for apparent contradictions: acceleration through deceleration, safety is dangerous, leading is following. In carefully composed discussion rounds, embodied knowledge is made shareable.
Driven by the desire to do justice to the complexity of the world we live in, we explore the creative and transformative potential of paradoxical situations and impasses. In collaboration with various academies, including ArtEZ Academy of Theatre and Dance, Gerrit Rietveld Academy, and Leiden University of Applied Sciences, we are currently working towards in-depth research and the further development of Paradox-as-Praxis and the Ateliers.
More information: NOT WITHOUT THE ROSE, a Workshop for Social Sculpture
