rehearse connection

all texts and images by dani/ela bershan *unless indicated otherwise


my work is seeking out spaces of encounters
where complexity can be held,
diverse communities can flourish and
imaginations of doing otherwise can come into fruition.

RELATIONAL GYM
metabolic edition

This deck is a ritual technology for metabolizing what is happening in the world — and the world is burning, flooding, choking, grieving, starving, birthing, emerging.

Here, metabolism is not just digestion. It’s a politi- cal act. A refusal. A prayer. A practice of remember- ing that every breath, every bite, every boundary, every breakdown is a site of relation — and that relation is never neutral.

This deck does not offer escape. It offers entangle- ment. It offers deep compost. It offers the sacred mess of staying with the trouble in a world that teaches us to numb, sever, consume, and forget.

It asks: What are we absorbing? What are we excreting? What are we ready to transform — personally, collectively, cosmically?

Use it when you feel cracked open. Use it when you feel sealed shut. Use it as ceremony, as salve, as companion, as agitation. Draw a card. Let the questions move you. Let the images sit on your mucosa. Let the reflections metabolize slowly — in the gut, in the fascia, in the field.

Each card invites you to remember that your body is not separate from Earth’s body. That your breath is not yours alone. That healing is not a return to purity, but a layered, leaking, entangled becoming. There is no clean air. No clean grief. No clean soil and no clean politics. Only deeper sensing,
slower noticing, more compassionate worlding and a thousand and one chances to recommit to aliveness — again and again. Let rot what needs rotting. Let feed what needs feeding.

Welcome to the sacred mess, to the continuous labour of metabolizing the here and now,

welcome to the RELATIONAL GYM.

39 hand drawn Oracle Cards + booklet

concept, text & images by Dani Bershan

pre-order now

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ArtsEverywhere

〰️ ArtsEverywhere

OCEAN or THE TOUCH OF A RELATIONAL LIFEWORLD

PRESS & PRAISE FOR OCEAN

OCEAN or THE TOUCH OF A RELATIONAL LIFEWORLD PRESS & PRAISE FOR OCEAN

OCEAN or: the touch of a relational lifeworld

by Bojana Cvejič

Sometimes, a performance, a work of art, reveals its timeliness in a time that does not favor its public appearance. Circumstances happen, and they hinder its reception, and while the work of mounting a performance for few occasions for too few spectators might seem disappointingly vain to its makers, the performance still finds other ways of working through to us, reaching the spectators who couldn’t experience the full event. Like sprouting new tentacles that will extend it into other modes of existence — a map, a conversation, a rehearsal, a rumor — the work begins to live in the mythical glow of incompleteness. This condition is not unusual for those artworks of which we cherish the most vivid memories even if we only saw a glimpse of them.

I was among the few clandestinely drawn into the circle of OCEAN during its rehearsals in March 2021, when arguably, the pandemic with its austere restriction of public gatherings suspended the performing arts at large. In a glass building (Kanal Pompidou), originally devised for showcasing automobiles on a busy junction in Brussels (Square Sainctelette), a ritualistic performance sculpture transpired for what seemed to be long hours. Indifferent to the noisy traffic outside, which recalled me to a world ominously threatening to choke us, we gathered around a circle in which three persons dwelled and, at times, occupied themselves with laborious actions. One was kneading dough for bread, while another one was preparing tea in a samovar; the third one singing. The chant seemed to color a long breath: a motif of a few tones patterned like a call (question) and response, ascending and descending, and repeating over and over again. The circular motion of the chant emulated the rhythm of breathing, evening out long inhalations and exhalations. It reminded me of the exercises in which one calms their spirits, or a mood of distress, by breathing into and with the whole body. The “songing” of the breath served to sharply separate out the time-space of OCEAN set against the city.

>>> READ THE FULL REVIEW @ ETCETERA MAGAZINE

Die Kunst der Berührung

SWR Kulturmagazin

Everything comes from somewhere and everything is always already here…

>>> READ THE FULL Q&A @ BERLIN ART WEEK

DATES 2024

22 JANUARY - 4 FEBRUARY A.I.R. GUT MATTERS @ workspacebrussels, BE

6 MARCH 2024 - HOLES & GUT MATTERS TALK @ SAUNA NEVER DRY, COLLABORATION WITH SARA LEGHISSA / NESSUNO @ BEURSCHOUWBURG BE

12 APRIL 2024 - WHINE & WINE #REHEARSECONNECTION @ KUNSHAL GENT, BE

APRIL - AUGUST - A.I.R. METABOLIZING HUMAN WRONGS / GESTURING TOWARDS DECOLONIAL FUTURES COLLECTIVE @ Chão do Rio Avô, PT / University of Victoria, CA

MAY - SEPTEMBER - DRAMATURGY FOR BEST PRACTICES IN CONTEMPORARY DANCE, Brussels & Tallin, BE/EST

22-30 JUNE 2024 - A.I.R. GUT MATTERS @ PERFORMING ARTS FORUM, FR

2-12 JULY 2024 - ELSEWHERE & OTHERWISE 11 - LIQUID SOLIDARITIES
THE MAGNETICS OF GRIEF, EROSION & COURAGE @ PERFORMING ARTS FORUM
, FR

10 OCTOBER - 9 FEBRUAR 2025 GROUP EXHIBITION Hosting @ Centrale for Contemporary Art, Brussels, BE

25 OCTOBER - 3 NOVEMBER SOLO EXHIBITION SPELLS @ AU JUS, Brussels, BE

DATES 2025

JANUARY - JULY - FELLOWSHIP WITH GESTURING TOWARDS DECOLONIAL FUTURES COLLECTIVE - GDTF, MUSAGETES FOUNDATION, CA

7 FEBRUARY - PREMIERE GUT MATTERS @ KUNSTHAL GENT, BE

7 FEBRUARY - 4 MAY SOLO EXHIBITION GUT MATTERS @ KUNSTHAL GENT, BE

7/8/9 FEBRUARY - PERFORMANCE GUT MATTERS @ KUNSTHAL GENT, BE

13 MARCH - SYLLABUS READING GROUP @ KUNSTHAL GENT, BE

14 MARCH - TALK HOLES & GUT MATTERS Friday Night @ KUNSTHAL GENT, BE

15 MARCH - SYMPOSIUM GUT MATTERS icw Sarah Amsler, Dani d’Emilia, Irena Radmanovic & Red Vaughan Tremmel @ WOMAN & CHILDREN FIRST FESTIVAL, VIERNULVIER & KUNSHAL GENT, BE

15/16 MARCH - PERFORMANCE GUT MATTERS @ WOMAN & CHILDREN FIRST FESTIVAL, VIERNULVIER & KUNSHAL GENT, BE