LIQUID STONES-LIQUID BONES

Co-presented with Loukas Avramidis

About

The workshop "Liquid Stones, Liquid Bones", is an interactive workshop where bodies get in contact with their environments and other human and non-human bodies. Through an in-depth exploration of the sense of touch, the participants focus on the experience of exchanging bodily sensations with their surroundings in order to receive feedback for their own bodily structure, their skeleton, bones, and organs as well as the mental structure generated through the enactment of touch and movement.

The workshop was presented at The Martian Chronicles Residency #3, under the title "Dreaming of (e)CO-Realities", in Leonidio, Greece, in 2023 as part of the general research on practices of embodiment in Somatic Architecture and Performing Arts.

photo by: bmin0r

Concept

A workshop on the fluidity of bones and inner organs inspired by the rock formations of the limestone mountains of Leonidio in Greece.

How can we soften stiffness in our bodies?

How can we activate our fluids and feel them deep into our bone structure?

How can we use our imagination to melt our organs internally and generate movement that connects every part of our internal bodily "landscapes" in organic and effortless moving patterns?

The Concept

Leonidio is a well-known climbing destination. Climbers from all over the world come to immerse themselves in the limestone rock formations all around the area. For the past 10 years, I have been part of this community and experienced my birth town in a new and profound way. I climbed the walls which used to be only a form of physical boundary or part of the view in my surroundings. Through the experience of climbing, I conceived the concept of Somatic Landscapes Architecture, which is meant to describe the intimate connection built between the climbing body and the rock during climbing. The shapes of the rock determine the quality of our movement and in slow processes, they shape also our bodily and mental structures.

The rock in Leonidio is highly shaped by the water running inside the mountains and this gives a liquified shape to the landscape with stalagmites
stalactites being an integral part of the landscape.

I invited the participants to get inspired by the image of the landscape, even without climbing at that moment and using their imagination to sense how it would be if water was shaping their bodies as it does to the stone.

The major part of our brain, heart, lungs, skin, and bones is water after all. We just need to activate and let it shape us physically and mentally.