TEACHING PHILOSOPHY
I understand teaching as a space for empowerment - in which students are encouraged to develop artistic autonomy through critical negotiation, shared inquiry, and a willingness to embrace transformation and friction as part of the artistic process.
My pedagogical approach is informed by Sternfeld’s concept of learning, drawing on Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak’s notion of unlearning, which understands education as a critical undoing of hegemonic structures rather than the reproduction of knowledge. Further key references include bell hooks’ Teaching to Transgress and Achille Mbembe’s concept of a planetary curriculum. I actively work with feedback as an artistic tool and have developed an adapted version of Liz Lerman’s Critical Response Process that integrates associative and experimental elements. I incorporate somatic methods that link theory- and body-based knowledge, that critically question Western traditions of knowledge production.
My teaching often begins with a question: What (political) issue is important for you right now? I want to create a space that is not about my agenda, but about the students passion and learning process. An inquiry into the political, social, or aesthetic questions that currently preoccupy the students. From there, theory is introduced as a tool that is situated, necessary, and in dialogue with practice. I understand teaching as a process of working that supports students on structural, economic, and methodological questions that shape artistic production. In practical terms, this includes opening my professional networks and creating concrete platforms for visibility and exchange.
WORKSHOP / COURSE FORMATS
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GANGS OF PERFORMATIVE ACTIVISM
Gangs of performative Activism is a workshop and collective intervention, which focuses on performative strategies in activism historically and in the present and on the question through which embodied experiences a community can form. The workshop overviews Pfalzers research and compares the performative strategies of: activist groups such as Pussy Riot; art collectives such as Guerilla Girls, and the structural approach of projects like Silent University and will provide an analysis of the methodologies of performative strategies in activism, such as: costume/anonymity/uniform, collective empathy, common objectives, collaborative actions like singing in a choir. The group engages with the these methodologies, embodies them and prepares for an intervention in public space to experience the strength and perils of anonymity, communal bodies and collective identity. The workshop interveines with daily conventions of moving and witnessing, integrating sensitivity, collectivity and playfulness into the public space.
Galerie Wedding Berlin and University of Applied Arts and Sciences Lucerne
QUEERING ORIENTATIONS
General introduction:
The workshop queering orientations focuses on thinking with the whole body and combining theoretical practice with movement practice. How do we orient ourselves outside of point A to point B thinking? Queer in this context is not only understood in terms of sexual orientation, but in terms of finding alternative ways of researching through lateral, intuitive and tentacle-like thinking, not forgetting that the root of queerness requires a constant shift against the grain.
Further thoughts and theoretical references:
“Orientations are about how we begin, how we proceed from here” Sara Ahmed talks in her text “Orientations: Toward a Queer Phenomenology” about the point of view from where we start to think. What is surrounding us and towards what are we oriented? Hito Steyrl outlines in her text “In free Fall” the history of western perspective and gaze. She further describes a state of “free fall” where we have “no common ground” (fixed ideology). She describes an in-between-state that we inhabit. Anzaldua proposes an understanding of the Borderlands not only in a geographical way but also in terms of sexual orientation an outlines these borderlands as an analogy to the in-between.
The exercises of the workshop propose an embodiment of these perspectives and a pleasure and a potential of being in the inbetween.
Depending on the context and group the texts that will be read in the workshop will be adapted.
BODY ++ TEXT ++ STUDIO PRACTICE
This class focuses on connecting text and body with tools that link theory-based, body-based knowledge and poetry. What are the traditions of western knowledge production in universities in Europe? In the beginning of this course, we alternate between continuous reading, moving and writing, giving each task the same amount of time. In this circular mode of training, we read Constance Classen’s “The deepest sense”, in which she investigates the role of the senses in European middle-ages before the enlightenment and the following emphasis on text and cognitive knowledge production. We continue with poets such as Bhanu Kapil and Kamau Brathwaite, in various modes and positions of reading and listening and learn about the idea of an embodied writing practice. After this introduction block the students bring texts or materials such as images, to research about a topic they want to work with in their practice and apply the circular training method. The idea is to share tools that students can later on use to structure their studio practice when initiating a new project.
How to intervene when witnessing sexual and racial discrimination in public space? The workshop aims to prepare its participants to meddle in and become an ally in delicate situations.
In Muay Thai box training the practitioner first learns the technique by repetition to exert it later in the fight. It is an effective way to embody an action and internalize it. In the workshop we will not practice martial arts, but we will internalize actions like filming quickly with a phone camera, memorize details fast and practice different linguistic strategies when approaching a stranger, abuser or victim. The workshop not only gives space to learn analytical methods to deal with highly emotional situations but also to share and discuss personal narratives and experiences.
Accessible for persons with restricted mobility.
SEND ME A TEXT
Project with students from Städelschule 2023
In the fall semester of 2023 the students of Städelschule Frankfurt were invited to send their writings, manifests and poems to the students of curatorial studies. In the course the students of curatorial studies made a book with all the submissions. Each submission was accompanied by a simple score, such as “change your body position before listening to this poem” in the book. During Rundgang 2024 we read them together with the audience in a collective listening- reading- feeling- session.
The project was an adaptation of a performance score originally developed with Lena Neuburger.
photos by Nicolas Wefers
pIAR x K++V
Project with students of the University of applied Arts and Sciences Lucerne, 2024/2025
In this class the students created a performance program at the nGbK Berlin and at Shedhalle Zurich. The task was to create a 5 min performance, whether they wanted to use sounds, video, other materials or keep it simple - it was open to the students.
Over the duration of one semester, each student worked on their performance accompanied by collective feedback sessions, performance methods classes and exchange sessions with the Ghanaian performance art residency pIAR.
SPEECH TRAINING
How to speak in front of crowds? Our voice is a muscle we need to warm-up. Our words travel slower than we expect. This is a simple training to become more confident and playful with your voice when speaking.
ES HDMI, CMYK, LGBTQ* - ERRORES DE TRADUCCIÓN ENTRE LOS „BORDERLANDS“ LOCALES Y GLOBALES
¿Qué significa asumirse queer en la vida cotidiana? ¿Qué es una frontera? ¿Es una delimitación geográfica que divide al norte del sur o algo tangible que experimentamos día con día? ¿Quiénes somos en Instagram y quiénes somos sentadas en el metro? ¿Para qué sirven nuestros cuerpos en estos dos contextos distintos? ¿Qué representamos? ¿Qué sucede con los cuerpos masculinos, femeninos y queer tanto online como en las frontera
En este taller intentaremos trabajar desde un acercamiento queer. Entraremos en trance juntas, gritaremos juntas y quizá nos daremos bofetadas entre nosotras. Este taller no incluye las respuestas a las preguntas anteriores pero abarca distintos métodos de investigación.
El taller incluye una sesión larga de improvisación. La música DEBIT hicó una mezcla especialmente por la sesión de improvisación.