Workshop with Salman Dirir

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 this workshop by artist, filmmaker and dancer Salman Dirir, we explore endurance as a form of self-care and resistance to constant performance pressure. Endurance is meant here as tuning in to the body—through movement and dance—as a way to reconnect with yourself in times of burnout and overwhelm, beyond the pressure for constant self-optimisation that is the result of social systems that perpetuate domination, exploitation and inequality. Through breathwork, functional movement, and rhythm, we restore our connection to ourselves—especially in times of exhaustion

Inspired by Ima-Abasi Okon's new artwork made specially for the Van Abbemuseum’s old building: rubber track mats with sensors that react to the movement of visitors and are connected to a digital clock that resets as more people come into the exhibition. Salman’s workshop undermines the idea of speed and competition, and offers space for calm, focus and connection.

What are you going to do?

• · Breath work: using your breath to slow down and be present.
• Natural movement: exercises like squatting and crawling help you ground and strengthen your body awareness.
• Rhythm & relationship: feeling your inner rhythm and that of the group - listening, following and moving together.
• The workshop is suitable for everyone, regardless of your experience with movement. We conclude with a drink in the Van Abbe café.

Practical:

• Comfortable clothes
• Light shoes (bare feet are also allowed)
• The workshop will last 45 minutes.
• We will gather in the hall of the Old Building in front of Ima-Abasi Okon's solo exhibition. The workshop will take place in the exhibition.

About Salman Dirir

Salman Dirir is a multidisciplinary artist, filmmaker and dancer from Eindhoven, with roots in Djibouti and Somaliland. In 2023, he graduated from the “Photography, Film & the Digital” department at St. Joost School of Art & Design. Before that, he trained as an AV specialist at Sint Lucas College in Eindhoven. His work is rooted in his bi-cultural background and moves at the intersection of film, dance and music. Diririr's practice is characterised by an intuitive approach, inspired by surrealism and expressionism, in which themes such as absurdism and alienation play a recurring role

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.