Workshop with Robbin Castillo

In collaboration with artist Ima-Abasi Okon, several practitioners were invited to provide workshops around Okon's solo exhibition. In these workshops, participants will engage with the central themes of the exhibition: how ideas of progress relate to people, society, and politics.

The exhibition raises questions about how ideas of improvement, used to justify the appropriation of land in settler colonialism, are still seen in today's focus on optimising the body. The workshops offer a space to explore these connections physically, relationally, and critically. Drawing on their own disciplines and expertise, the ambassadors will lead participants through workshops to address physical and mental endurance, slowing down, biomedical techniques for life extension and tactics for survival within the welfare state.

In a society driven by dominance, exploitation, control, and competition, mentor Robbin Castillo invites you to slow down, ground yourself, and return to the foundation: the body. Not to improve it or shape it into an ideal, but to truly feel it as a source of instinct, direction, and wisdom. Our nervous system is the most refined on Earth, says Robbin. It gives us the capacity to pause, to feel, and to respond consciously instead of reacting automatically. It is essential to intentionally seek out moments of slowness, especially in a time when we are constantly pushed to optimize and perform.

Inspired by Ima-Abasi Okon's hand-built Leslie speakers. in her new solo exhibition, this workshop offers a gentle countermovement to the pressure to perform and perfect. In this session, you’ll work with grounding, natural movement, and focused reflection. You’ll learn to tune in to the signals of your body and make space for what lives there. Not to become tougher, but to become more aware of your instinct. Robbin brings a broad range of experience: from breakdancing and calisthenics to yoga and Mixed Martial Arts. His physical journey is deeply interwoven with years of meditation practice, retreats, and periods of solitude.

What are you going to do?

• Introduction: The connection between body and mind
• Grounding exercises: Slow down, land, and focus
• Natural movements: Rediscover the blueprint of human motion
• Nervous system regulation: Train calmness and responsiveness in your system
• Reflection: How can you apply your body’s wisdom in daily life?
• Closing: We end with a drink at the Van Abbe café

Accessible to everyone, regardless of age or experience.

Practical

• Bring: Comfortable clothes in which you can move and lie down freely
• We will gather at the information desk in the box office area and then go together to the space the Studio.
• The workshop lasts 75 minutes.

About Robbin Castillo

Robbin Castillo is a holistic personal trainer who combines functional strength, yoga, and personal development to offer a comprehensive approach to well-being. He is a mentor with years of experience guiding people in the healthcare sector, with a special focus on individuals who have lost connection with their bodies. His guidance centers on relearning how to feel, ground, and live from the body. His own journey began on the streets with breakdancing, evolved through yoga and calisthenics into Mixed Martial Arts (MMA), and grew into a deep physical and spiritual discipline. He combines this physical foundation with inner work, meditation, and nervous system regulation.

Robbin has traveled the world and lived intensely with various cultures, spending significant time in solitude and on meditation retreats. His life has taken him from the theater to the MMA cage, from silence in monasteries to working with the soil. In his free time, he enjoys being with his family or tending his vegetable garden, because true strength is rooted in simplicity.

More about the exhibition by Ima-Abasi Okon

Ima-Abasi Okon’s solo exhibition Incorporeal hereditaments like Love [can] Set(s) You Free, according to Kelly, Case, Dru Hill, Kandice, LovHer, Montel and Playa with 50 - 60g of –D,)e,l,a,y,e,d1;—O,)n,s,e,t2;— ;[heart];M,)u,s,c,l,e3;[heart];—S,)o,r,e,n,e,s,s4; opens May 10 in the Van Abbemuseum in Eindhoven. Ima-Abasi Okon presents a collection of old and new work in as many as 10 rooms of the historic section of the building. The exhibition raises questions about how ideas of improvement, used to justify the appropriation of land in settler colonialism, are still seen in today's focus on optimising the body.