Áron Birtalan’s 80% seminar

I cannot dance unless you lead me.
If you want me to leap with abandon,
You must intone the song.
Then I shall leap into love,
From love into knowledge,
From knowledge into enjoyment,
And from enjoyment beyond all sensations.
There I want to remain, yet also want to circle deeper still.

Through me into you
And through you from me
 

Schedule

24 October (Thursday) at Studio 11
17.30-20.00 - study session
playful engagement in the research’s praxis
including small breaks and refreshments

25 October 25 (Friday) at Studio 11
13.00-13.05 John-Paul Zaccarini, PhD supervisor, welcomes 
13.05-13.30 Presentation by PhD student 
13.30-14.15 Response from Jonna Bornemark and conversation with PhD student 
14.15-14.35 Break 
14.35-15.15 Continued conversation between PhD student and opponent 
15.15-16.00 Audience questions and conversation

Book your place
Registration is only possible for both days together.  
Link to booking    

Outline

This PhD research is a study in intimacy and an attempt at a theology of touch. I explore languages of intimacy in participatory art and somatic practice, putting them in conversation with heterodox spiritual practices from the Christian Middle Ages. Special attention is given to the lay communities who engaged in these practices, and the non-institutional networks that circulated them. With their help, I wish to come to a wayward sensitivity in how our bodies are, in a way, always ‘ecstatic’ - always extending ourselves into the world and in/voluntarily inviting the world to extend itself into us. Ecstasy, in this case, is a kind of ‘vital passivity’ that incessantly midwifes us to new relationships with a world enfleshed. I’m interested in the intellectuality of these relationships - if they can be treated as sentient creatures of their own, and the way they challenge the realms of consent and sovereignty. Can we trust our relationships to know something about us that we, ourselves, never will?

In preparation for the seminar, read Áron’s essay for ImpulsTanz 2024 here.
You can read more about the PhD project here

Content and Accessibility

The seminar includes quiet and loud sounds, and (optional) participatory exercises in attention and sensation. The venue is fully accessible. The seminar touches on topics of religion, grief, ideas about the afterlife, sensuality, contamination, erotics, and the limits of consensual relationships. Because of its specific sensory space, the seminar is not suitable for guests with small children. However, following the candidate’s presentation on the 25th, the conversations starting 13.30- are welcome to all. For any questions, please get in touch at aron.birtalan@uniarts.se

Hosted by: Áron Birtalan 
With: Busta Rhymes & Mariah Carey, Cascada, DeepL AI, Hadewijch of Brabant, Erin Manning, Mechtild von Magdeburg, Meister Eckhart, the Pseudo-Hadewijch and Simone Weil
Opponent: Jonna Bornemark (Södetörns Högskola) 
Supervisors: John-Paul Zaccarini (Stockholm University of the Arts), Anne Juren (Stockholm University of the Arts) 
Thanks to: Gabriel Widing, Maren Wolf, Omer Keinan, Dafne Giannikopoulou, Rebecca Field and Márton Kabai