My Body Screams in Colors

A self-portrait of the Artist Piotr

a multisensory art project 
by Piotr Nowak and Irini Hara

Inspired by the way Edvard Munch used colors and shapes to create The Scream painting this creative project aims to use different artistic means (clay, colors, textures) to give voice to the Body, that will be able to scream in all chakras colors and associated emotions.

This co-creation project has the aim to research through therapeutical and artistic tools the many different aspects of a creative process and deliver a final immersive experience where the audience can become aware of their own trauma biography and gain insights in ways to overcome or heal it. Stemming in the trauma biography model (and therapy method, IoPT) proposed by Franz Rupert, the research focuses on both the process of creation itself (and the inner dynamic the artist goes through along it) and also its impact on audience invited to visit or have an experience based on the final art-objects and the written essays.

The body plays a fundamental role in delivering the contents for creative expression, the therapeutical experience of re-connection and healing and also in evaluating the final outcome in an immersive environment where different senses can be used (vision, touch, hearing, taste, smell).

The project itself has 3 main components:

• Research – during 7 sessions of therapy (using IoPT method and also art therapy) the different traumas the body keeps inside have been revealed and then translated into an artistic expression (the intention for each session was formulated by the artist, in form of a drawing, clay model etc.) using one color only, correspondent to one chakra in the body (7 colors = 7 chakras = 7 emotions =  7 senses);
• Art making – 7 art objects (sculptures) have been produced starting with the insights and bodily experience that the artist had in each therapy session; the artist had freedom of expression and in the choice of materials and techniques;
  • Creative writing in form of 1 page assay for each body part.
• Public event –a public event (exhibition or immersion –this last part could include a sound healing ceremony, an opening samtale with the co-creators and a specialist in an area related to the project, a dancing session, a workshop for kids on how to model clay etc.) will be organized. This part of the project is still in planning phase.

Description

This is not an ordinary art project. It is a co-creation between a therapist and a visual artist. It is a mirror-like process, where an invisible bridge between two people, two hearts and four hands has been built slowly, along 8 meetings.

Each intention (8 intentions as for the 8 sessions) has been drawn or expressed as a sentence.

The body, as primary element of expression, became a vehicle for resolving old traumas stuck in energy centres, called chakras. For each chakra a different color and emotion (or emotions) have been considered as a starting point for the creative process. The 7 chakras became the entry points for exploring the trauma biography of the artist and the body was able to reveal different aspects and make them visible to the artist. Sometimes the colors corresponding to each one re-appeared in other sessions, showing the body ways of processing emotions and energies.

1 session has been added in the middle of the therapeutical process. The artist was feeling stuck as the kiln was not working because of not enough electricity supply in the building. The Kiln session brought back the spark, the inner fire needed to continue the project.

Each element of the intention created a resonance in the artist, bringing up memories, emotions, feelings, sensations, thoughts. Each meeting became a self-encounter for the artist (the method used is also known as Self-meeting or IoPT – Identity Oriented Psycho-trauma Therapy). He could explore the energies and emotions that his body brought up for each session of therapy and move in the space according the needs of the Body and Psyche. He got an unique challenge to journey deeper inside his own psyche and body and uncover what has been hidden, suppressed or forgotten. Through each therapeutical process he gained awareness around his own trauma biography and outdated patterns or beliefs that generated a sense of failure, shame, pain, grief, anger, disappointment.

The therapist guided the artist in the self-inquiry that each session became. From the development of each resonance process a short essay has been written. Like in a puzzle, fragments of the artist life (inner life but also outer circumstances and people) took shape and found a new meaning. Through each object shaped after each session and corresponding to each chakra a Body part from the Self-Portrait took life. With each session more connection and increased awareness came.

Each resonance has been translated into an art object, defined as Body parts for the essays exposed below. Each essay tells a story about the artist, showing aspects of his own emotional and mental life that were brought to life by trauma therapy and the art making process. At the same time the essay also reflects part of the experience and observations of the therapist, as co-creator of the whole experience. The essays also served as inspiration and catalyst for shaping the art-objects from concept into matter. A two folded process made possible for the artist and therapist to reflect on their own life experience. The Body was acknowledge as a Teacher for both of them, as they both learned more about the Human nature.

This exhibition is an immersion and multi-sensorial exploration into concepts as Identity, Creative process, Body, Senses, Trauma. You are invited to appreciate, fully enjoy with your senses every object and essay associated to it. Bring an open mind and heart, and seize the universal message each of these objects brings. Explore what resonates intimately with your own life story or trauma biography.

7 Body Parts

(credits for the images go to Anders Bergesen)

Example of first assay resulting from therapy session

Body Part 1 (RED)

I am not my baggage. Heavy burdens carried along a life time, 40 years of adding more heaviness to the body, to the mind, to the feeling inside…I do not know where I go but I have been on this journey for a while and it feels a long time.

I try to connect and I cannot feel myself, it takes a while to get used to the Inside of me, to the Structure I am trying to build and dissolve all the time. I am in a movement between wanting to feel safe and not needing the structure, the gravity the pools down towards my roots, towards my fears…I am in a space where I can just float and feel nothing, but my hands can grasp the sensation of building from fragments the puzzle that is Me.

I want out of the body, smoking weed gives me a liberation feeling but I also feel sick…I want to escape this reality, the pain and struggle life became, but I also feel inside a cage.

It is my heart that wants me trapped or out of the cage? Who cares? I do not value I…it feels like a stranger in my own Body. Who am I really?

There are two parts of me – one is caged into old memories, put down by heavy baggage of not processed dusty emotions – the other is free and rejects structure and gravity, like a balloon that tries to lift a heavy burden, my heart is dragging the balloon towards the earth.

I miss her, but I do not want to remember her loss…my heart is black as night and cannot get easier.

I miss myself as a child, embraced by her arms, but I do not wish to remember the joy and safety I felt in those times…my heart tries to lift up with the white balloon hanging down from a golden thread.

I miss my childhood and the zero gravity and worries times, but I do not wish to be reminded I am an adult now and I need a structure to survive….my heart disconnected from its roots and wants to fly with the balloon, but still its heaviness drags the balloon in an in between state, a moment of insecurity and freeze.

I cannot hold anymore, when this fragile equilibrium between being and not being, between feeling and not feeling, between stillness and movement will end?

I am not my baggage.
I wish to feel safe.
I want out of the body.
I am creating a new structure for myself.
I am.
I feel red.