"Me and you we need."

"Me and you, we need some kind of tomorrow."

It has been scientifically proven that experiences of racism lead to more stress hormones. Racism also has the power to distract those affected from life. This raises the question of what forms of healing are there and what can art do for them? The artist responds to these questions and finds her answer in SELF in a US.

Where in the body are the conscious and unconscious blockages of trauma? To what extent does mental health suffer as a result? Which physical illnesses can arise? What wisdom, traditions are there from our cultures? What methods did our ancestors use and how, if so, can we apply them in this present?

Writer Toni Morrison said "The function, the very serious function of racism is as a distraction. It keeps you from doing your work. It makes you explain again and again why you are like that.” If racism has the function of distraction, the question arises for me as an activist, why and how do I allow myself to be distracted? If I put my focus on healing racism in my body, is that also a type of distraction? Where in the body is there more free space? How do I want to move and which body parts might move differently or more freely? What form does the body take now?

During the three-month residency at Oyoun, the artist Asmaa Sbou undertook body-based research and quickly understood that it is a long-term process that is constantly changing and requires far more time. 

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Gefördert vom Fonds Darstellende Künste aus Mitteln der Beauftragten der Bundesregierung für Kultur und Medien

Photo and video: Christian Suhr