Somatic practices and care

In our contemporary Western societies, the practices that link body and care are embedded in very specific visions of what a body can be and how it can be "treated". Whether in the socio-political, medical, artistic, economic or ecological field, the body is often thought of from a statist, individualistic and objectifying framework.

This course proposes to explore a broader vision of the body and care, based on how "doing-body" and "doing-care" are played out between humans and non-humans in traditional non-Western practices. It will question the interweaving of the "art of caring" with the production of artifacts of pragmatic value, the use of (rendered) organic tools and the collective staging of beings such as plants, songs, spirits, mountains and living pharmacopoeias. In other words, how can what are understood in the West as artistic practices become a savoir-faire, an ecology of the body, which cares for and otherwise makes social, political and affective bodies? How do the vulnerabilities of individual, collective and ecological bodies come together in the defense of arts in struggle? Experiences from field practices around care will allow us to explore theories from the philosophy of care and the anthropology of the body, with an emphasis on feminist and decolonial perspectives.