Within the new alliance with the NEPHAISTO art therapy school with which we have recently contacted to exchange experiences to establish possible future relationships, Sol Abejón, a student of our School, was invited to participate in a training session to learn about the relationship between her work and ours. And here the chronicle of it, thank you Sol! :
The trip began on Wednesday, April 7 at 12 noon via zoom. For 2 hours and 4 Wednesdays Javier introduced us to the world of Perfomance, in a slow, clear and direct way. Framing every idea, every exercise, every interference. Javier explains that Performance is communication and ritual. * Rite gives meaning to actions and actions are important to feel part of it. It is important to be in the presence and find the meaning of life. As well, being in the present with attention. Words that seem obvious and yet are words that escape us, that are often absent because the frenetic pace makes us forget them. As Javier speaks, he relates his teachings to some of the psychology families and the basic agreement between them comes to mind: the need to give meaning to our lives; Victor Frankl on the one hand and on the other, Jung and PROCESS WORK ** with the path of individuation. And to achieve this, the need to be present, truly present, in contact with ourselves.
The rules of the Perfomance game are very well defined. It is needed: the definition in time, space and action; repetition and its anchoring in presence; durability; rituals as a sense of eternity and cyclical time; giving meaning to our actions; membership; presence and play. A cocktail of magic words that if we mix them with the slowing down technique, with slowing down, take us to a new stage, where the details and symbols can be seen. This potion looks like the alchemical methodology of PROCESS WORK; our laboratory is the body and the raw material is us. Presence, definition, belonging, repetition, play and above all, go slower and repeat, slower and repeat, to reach that level that PROCESS WORK calls dreams where the symbols or essence are, if there is no separation. The Performance is not a show, whoever watches participates and makes it his own; PROCESS WORK says the same thing, whoever is or who is, also participate in the field and form a system, of particles that are in relationship.
I read what has been written so far and it seems to me that everything explained was very easy; However, the Workshop exercises take you out, take me out of my known place, out of my primary identity as I would say PROCESS WORK and confront you with the unknown or not so well known, your secondary identity. Especially slowing down and stopping put you in that other place. How many resistances emerge to self-restrict the process, what familiarity I have with doing and doing quickly… And yet, how much creation and beauty there is in stopping and looking, and “dancing” in the micro movements. Less is more I have written on the wall. I got it from a PROCESS WORK supervision and Javier remembers: the less you do, the further you go. I wonder if he read my wall. I know not and I am still haunted by the coincidences of the workshop and PROCESS WORK
Javier reminds us that we work bringing what we have at the moment, working from the real, including what happens to us as part of the material. Bringing what we have in the moment, as a process that is happening to us and that has to be listened to and not marginalized. Process Work also has that point of view: not marginalizing what we feel-we bring in the moment, being curious about what it is and welcoming it, because it is part of us.
I could be here writing a thousand hours and a thousand letters and at the same time I have to limit. So I think: of the importance of the need for definition in time and space. I have been carried away here by free dance, by impulse and by a character: Sol the performative chronicler, my secondary identity (WORK OF PROCESSES). My person, primary identity (WORK OF PROCESSES) wants to close this chronicle and go to rest.
Thank you Javier, Escuela Hephaisto and the comrades for the shared connection with the creative source!
- Words in bold are concepts of perfomative practice.
By Sol Abejón, a student at the School and a member of the Instituto Trabajo de Procesos