Dark waters

September, 25-26

Berlin, boat

Event is over

Dark waters

Death as the moving principle v2.0. Practices of death on a night boat with the sauna

Cover image: Philip Tkachyov

Death is something more than just grief and fear, as it usually is perceived. Death is a big gray area, a twilight in which I wander and find at hand either the hair of a dead dog, or the slow presence of a dead object, or reasoning about the politics of the body, or I cease to hold a narrative about myself at all.

Why death practices?

Death always gives the opportunity to do something new. A step outside, a look from the outside, a wider context. Wherever it seems that we understood something, she is right there.

Knowing your mortality is the perfect tool for being alive. Be with yourself. Be with yourself.

Being vulnerable and powerful at the same time.

Be gentle and brave at the same time.

Be ready to take on everything and give yourself completely.

To be a body that is both alive and dead and constantly changing.

Who is it for?

For you, if you are a performer, a dancer, an actor, a child, a parent, a friend, a human. For everybody.

1 night

September, 25–26, 17:00–11:00
7 participants

We design a personal journey for each one of you
Floating sauna

A part of your journey will be a sauna session with the sauna practitioner
Sliding scale

100–150 euro

Photo by Philip Tkachyov

Facilitators

Hi, we are Vera and Miriam.

Vera has been working with death for the last three years. In an artistic, somatic, and performative approach. Miriam has been doing sauna work for the last three years.

We started this death journey together in May, and we are going over to the next phase.

Vera Shchelkina

Dance artist and choreographer

Dance artist, somatic practitioner, student of the Somatische Akademie, teacher of contemporary dance, movement, and performance for professionals, amateur and inclusive projects, curator of the inclusive project “Normal Dances”. Main Art Works: CO-TOUCH, My(Ex)Body, Imposter Lab, Discomfort Lab, SMRTъ

Read more about Vera.

Miriam Hartwig

Somatic practitioner and researcher

She is currently studying at the Somatische Akademie Berlin with a focus on the method of Continuum. From a very young age, she was taught the way of german sauna and over the last years, she studied Latvian ritualized sauna practices. She is interested in how heat, sound, and breath can support the body as an organism in its process of constant change.

PROGRAM

We will be having this overnight journey on the boat with a sauna. The boat is placed in Berlin, you don’t need to go far out of the city.

Participants will arrive one by one on the paddle boat with our help, starting from 17:00 on the 25.09.

We will gather at 19:00 to start our first circle and last supper, which will slowly transform into a personal journey through death practices that will lead you into the sauna - and back to the last circle.

If you have got a job in the morning, you will be able to sleep on the boat - or just continue arriving on the other side of your journey through the night. We will organize two different spaces for two different modi.

On the boat, there is a toilet, a shower, a bed linen, and a kitchen to prepare smth for yourself that you might need. Also, a sauna, a fire pit and a whole journey to the other side.

What exactly are we going to do?

Speak
Sing
Move
Explore

Travel
Steam
Be a guide and a follower
Whatever else might come up in your personal journey

This overnight experience will last 15 hours and will consist of somatic, performative, traditional, and sauna practices related to or inspired by death.

Warning: this is not a therapy workshop.

If you have any questions left – read our FAQ.

Location

The boat is placed in Berlin, you don’t need to travel out of the city.

Participants will arrive one by one on the paddle boats with our help, starting from 17:00 on the September, 25. On the map, you will find location of our starting point.

Participants can leave the boat anytime with the help of our team – by 11:00 in the morning of September, 26.

FEEDBACK (FIRST EDITION)

"I want to share some change, that I noticed after the workshop. My perception of any kind of alive and connected to alive matter has changed. I don't feel disgusted by and fungi or womit, etc any more. It feels like I gained some interesting ability to "see it through" if I can say so. Like I can see its origin and normality. It's very nice and hope, it stays with me forever".

FAQ

If you didn't find the information you need – don't hesitate asking the organisator via email: imitator@gmail.com.