CALL for PARTICIPATION: IASI, Stage of Recovery – Workshop and presentation by Georgia Sagri

Call for participation in the workshop IASI, Stage of Recovery by artist Georgia Sagri which investigates care, recovery and exhaustion through body practices. At the end of the workshop the artist will give a public talk on her practice.

Georgia Sagri has been developing her research practice IASI (in Greek ίαση, recovery) Stage of Recovery in overlapping phases for more than a decade. In 2019, she presented her work in three art institutions, in three different cities each with its own curatorial team: Mimosa House (London, UK) with Daria Khan, TAVROS (Athens, GR) with Maria-Thalia Carras and Olga Chatzidaki, and De Appel (Amsterdam, NL) with Monika Szewczyk, who all supported Sagri’s research and opened an in-depth conversation on her practice by hosting numerous IASI sessions (2019-2021) and conducting solo exhibitions of her work. Sagri works with individual participants via confidential and anonymous one-to-one sessions as part of her body of research practice into self-care and recovery – based on her own performance preparatory and recovery techniques that use breath as an active agent, movement, and voice.

The artist’s ongoing research was also the basis for her iconic work Dynamis, which was featured at documenta 14 (Kassel and Athens, 2017) and involved sharing these techniques with more than 200 members of the public across the two cities. During this process, Sagri observed an improvement in the general well-being of the participants which prompted her to continue her investigation. Currently, she shares and develops her practice and techniques with members of the public at her studio and art space ΥΛΗ[matter]HYLE.

For her workshop, Georgia Sagri will work on the notion of Stage of Recovery -which is also the title of her recently published book. She will present and develop with participants the tactile forces along with her IASI techniques. In the training, physical responses, as well as conversations, will further the investigation and the analysis of care, self-recovery, pain and fatigue, exhaustion, and anxiety, to name a few. Georgia Sagri will also organize one-to-one meetings if needed. The assemblage of visual, gestural, and vocal impressions of the accumulated bodily experiences will be probed into both on a personal and collective level, while chronic pains and their releases will form the backbone and the collective spine of personal
embodied results.

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SCHEDULE

Monday 26 September

14:00–15:30
IASI-Introductory Breathing Techniques-Part I
Notions of equality through breathing: Introduction to the concept of equal giving and taking. Analysis and training of the diaphragm (the organ) as the horizon. This will provide the group with the chance to discuss topics such as equality, gravity, breathing, air, collective and individual distribution, horizon, diaphragm, limit, tempo, circulation, and codependency.

15:30–16:00
Break

16:00–18:00
IASI-Introductory Breathing Techniques-Part II
A series of breathing techniques shared with the group will become the focal point for the introduction of my term performance pathology which will be discussed and worked through individually and as a group.

Tuesday 27 September

10:00–12:00
Individual meetings (15 mins each, upon request)

14:00–15:30
IASI-Introductory Movement Techniques with Breathing-Part I & II
For this session, movement perception will add to the previous day’s breathing techniques. Each of the participants will have time to try out movements individually and build their own self-recovery routines. At this stage, I am going to help participants navigate through the feelings that might surface. Pain, discomfort, fatigue, and release will be discussed with the group. Alongside IASI breathing techniques combined with movement techniques will be shared with the group. This step will give the chance for the participants to combine breathing and movement exercises and focus on the unique qualities that breathing and movement combined create.

15:30–16:00
Break

16:00–18:00
IASI – Voice Tuning- Part I
Together we will give time and space to each participant to search for their voice. Voice tuning might reveal another coloring of both the interior and exterior world. Spontaneously we will combine breathing, movement and voice techniques and try things that correspond to each participant’s creation of self-recovery routine. Self-care, care, comfort, silence, sound, voice will be discussed with the group.

Wednesday 28 September

10:00–12:00
Individual meetings (15 mins each, upon request)

14:00–15:30
IASI-Voice Tuning (combined with breathing and movement techniques)-Closing celebration!
We will combine breathing, movement, and voice techniques spontaneously and try out each participant’s self-recovery routine.

15:30–17:30
Break

18:00–20:00
Georgia Sagri Public Talk at IASPIS

 

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PARTICIPATION

Participation is free and it doesn’t require any specific knowledge. The workshop is in English.

Participants can join any day of the workshop, but need to reserve a spot via email with your name and contacts at: victoria.mccarthy@konstnarsnamnden.se
valerio.delbaglivo@konstnarsnamnden.se

Please wear comfortable clothes, bring a bottle of water and a yoga mat or a blanket. For individual meetings please email to Georgia Sagri at:  iasi.georgiasagri@gmail.com one day before your requested meeting.

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BIOGRAPHY

Georgia Sagri is an artist, scholar, and tenured professor of Performance at the Athens School of Fine Arts. She is the founder of the non-profit artists’ run space ΥΛΗ[matter]HYLE in Athens. Her interdisciplinary practice comprises a variety of media: sculpture, video, drawing, installation, and writing centered on the exploration of performance as an ever-evolving field within social and visual life. Much of her work is influenced by her ongoing engagement in political movements and struggles regarding issues of autonomy, empowerment, and self-organization. Her first monograph catalog was published by Sternberg Press in 2018, following her solo exhibitions Georgia Sagri Georgia Sagri at Kunstverein Braunschweig, and Georgia Sagri and I at Portikus, Frankfurt. She is the author of the book Stage of Recovery, Divided Publishing, 2021.

georgiasagri.com

hyle.gr