researchers:
With this research, Yael David was awarded the ‘Creator Doctus’ (CrD) degree. For more information about this degree, click here.
The focus of Davids’ research ‘A Daily Practice’ is on somatic learning, and it consisted of three phases. The research, supervised by the Van Abbemuseum and the Gerrit Rietveld Academie, was inspired by the work of Dr. Moshé Feldenkrais. He developed a method for people to change bodily habits from within. This method has played an important role in Davids’ artistic practice in the last years.
In the first phase, Davids realised A Reading That Loves – A Physical Act for documenta 14. In Athens, the work manifested as an installation and in Kassel as a performance-installation. The work combined moments when Davids’ own personal biography intersects with history and the life stories of four women – each a cultural-historical icon in their own right. The four female protagonists suffered complex societal conflicts in which each was confronted with the limits and creativity of their own selves.
In the second phase of the research, the position of somatic learning in primary education in the Netherlands is central. This phase combined theoretical and artistic research with workshops in Eindhoven for professionals in primary education. The Feldenkrais method allows a non-normative exploration of one’s own body movements, to form your own sense of self, independent of existing conventions. This method can form a valuable addition to current primary education. Davids’ workshops took place in the framework of a Werksalon in the Van Abbemuseum. In the third and last phase, Davids together with Gerrit Rietveld Academie, Van Abbemuseum, and partners in primary education wants to explore if somatic learning can be embedded in current educational practice.
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