INTRODUCTION TO FUNERAL STRIPPING

workshop series

Introduction to funeral stripping is a workshop series around the idea of delegated mourning and skills of solidarity in grief. It is building up upon my practice as a performer and filmmaker.

Each workshop iteration is an invitation to reflect on and practice how we show up for each other in grief situations. Through physical, storytelling and performative exercises, in the workshops we explore the idea of delegated mourning as a form of care, affective witnessing and attunement, and try to embrace mutual emotional exposure through practicing trust and consent. Being with each other through loss often means making a gesture of solidarity towards the other from a place of not knowing, while maintaining a respectful boundary towards the uniqueness of their experience. Departing from the idea that empathy is a skill that can be trained, we exercise deep listening to the unknown and negotiating intimacy and distance to expand our capacity to care for each other in grief, stay present in the face of intense emotions, befriend awkwardness and get cozy in the eye of a storm while keeping a possibility of playfulness in an emotionally charged subject. As we try to refine our bedside manners for end of the world situations, we ask how this could bring us closer towards a more sustainable collective redistribution of affective and care labour and slightly more livable daily realities for those touched by profound loss.