Last year Dr. Karin Bervoets, a former student of mine, invited me to participate in a project entitled "Life in Balance" curated by the Weltkulturen Museum in Frankfurt/Main. At the centre of the project is an exhibition by a number of artists from around the world. The exhibition is accompanied by a book edited by Alice Pawlik and Mona Suhrbier entitled "Healing" that collects curatorial comments, activists statements and academic comments relating to the exhibits.
The aim of the project is summarised by the curators in the following paragraph:
Crises are ubiquitous. And solutions hard to find. Especially when concepts from the west are based on the exploitation of people, the environment and resources. But in the sense of decolonial practice, long-established attitudes are now being questioned. New possibilities are being sought to actively shape the way we relate to the self, to nature, and to each other in social and global interaction. Indigenous societies, international artists, academics and activists open up a global dialogue for the shaping of postcolonial global togetherness and a healthy life in balance.
The exhibition itself will open on 2 November and run until September 2023. You can find more information about the exhibition, the book and the location of the museum here: https://www.weltkulturenmuseum.de/de/
My conversation with Dr. Bervoets, included in the book, explored what Chinese medicine might have to offer to such a dialogue. If you are interested you can download our conversation in both German or English below.