In the artistic workshop SOFT POWER, we exchange personal experiences from our respective professional practices. Which positions
do we occupy and which roles do we take on? Which hierarchies become visible? Which mental traps do we enter when we engage with others?
While we disentangle our shared observations, we start to entangle ourselves in a net of textiles, which, through the participation of all, grows into a social
fabric. through collective play, mutual dependencies and (unconscious) power dynamics become visible and immediately felt. As we become interwoven with each
other in the expanding net, we discuss the gaps of experience and knowledge that we notice. They are the result of diverse experiences and safety nets
of privileges which not everybody can rely on.
Through this collective process, with a new consciousness and from our current individual position, we practice how we can all pull in the same direction.
A participatory workshop / performance / game in the panel 'Let's change it! Racism – Culture – Power: Artistic Transformations for Social Change' at the conference 'The Major Transformations of Society' held at the Catholic University of Applied Sciences Northrhine-Westphalia (katho) in Cologne on 27th September 2023. Participants and co-creators included social workers, professors, priests, politicians, doctoral candidates, activists, administrative staff, scientific assistants, students and artists.
Images by Tabea Ahner and Aïcha Abbadi.
