AY 2021-2022 Salon Series
Rope #2 | João Victor Toledo, MA'22
On April 4th João Victor Toledo guided through "Rope #2," an experiment that investigated how the private and collective might coexist with. Elaborating on a previous iteration presented at Praxis earlier this year, João's workshop involved a tactile handmade rope participants held while silently journeying from the studio building to Time Square. The communal meditation in the midst of the bustling city asked participants to surrender to the meditational practice despite the external stimuli that so often demand our attention.
Experiments in Dissolving (Continued...) | Nora Raine Thompson, MA'22
On Tuesday April 12th we were led through a movement explorationn guided by Nora Raine Thompson. An extension of Experiments in Dissolving presented at PRAXIS earlier this year, Nora guided us through experiements in dissolving wherein different imaginations, metaphors, and actions were melded to loosen our contained senses of Self. This prompt driven workshop invited us to move slowly, listen closely, and share our findings graciously.
Placards #3 | João Victor Toledo, MA'22
Join us on Monday, April 18th João Victor Toledo's final salon event "Placards #3" took place. Based on Alexander Roberts’ "RageWalksLondon" from 2011, this experiment walked participants through the streets of New York City holding markers and blank placards that were used to establish contact with the world through the act of silence. The negotiation, contestation of language, and compromise asked of us in this experiment drew particpants toward worldly demands that force us to conceal intimate affections, emotions, and perceptions that might escape language while moving and engendering our social and political lives.
Throughout the experiment, participants gave space to what has not been yet heard in themselves, in order to provide a voice to what is kept covered by the noises of consciousness, violence, and technology. At the end of the march, each participant will filled their blank placard with whatever they wished. This was at its heart, an attempt to displace what sustains perception — to rework language and make it say something else. Silence to be, thus, what philosopher David Lapoujade calls the spokesperson of the inaudible, of the silent screams that exceed all modes of communication. Silence as a starting point. Silence as a political act.