Somatics and Justice

What happens when you ask people to embody climate change? Can embodiment practices help us prevent burnout and channel our values? What do these practices look like in practice? And why does the world seem to resist us maintaining them?

Henna-Elise Ventovirta is political scientist, interdisciplinary dance-artist and trainer from the Finnish Lapland. She researches corporeal resistance in the intersection of climate activism and dance – and is also the founder of German political education collective, Kipppunkt Kollektiv.

Highlights:

‘A person who has been very active in the climate movement who has been trying to do everything from demonstrations to strikes to direct action, who has the feeling nothing works… what might happen to that person in our individualised culture is that they turn the blame on themselves: ‘I didn’t do enough’, ‘I failed’…

The work of embodied tools might first require that the person actually acknowledges the pain – and at the same time acknowledges ‘no, it’s not my fault’, and acknowledges the collective element that has caused this embodiment to take place.’

Alongside her research and practice of somatics, Henna-Elise is a founding member of the German group Kipppunkt Kollektiv who do work to empower social movements. I’m hoping to link back up with her in the future to discuss this group!

https://kipppunkt-kollektiv.de/

The punk band mentioned at the start and played at the end is Maz and the Phantasms – they're amazing, check them out! The outro track was Psychosomatic https://open.spotify.com/artist/3bxfjLBLwpN6sQjNYbBl26?si=tLRHyUL5TPatc8LBfHD0Ug

https://www.instagram.com/mazphantasms/

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