[watch & wa/onder]
WALKSHOP (in collaboration with Sinta Wibowo)
October 2023 Koh Kong, CAMBODIA
December 2019 Sambor Preykuk, CAMBODIA
July 2018 Shaxi, Yunnan, CHINA
March 2018 Semarang, Central-Java, INDONESIA
[watch & wa/onder] are poetic and playful walkshops exploring normalization and imagination that I organize with Sinta Wibowo who works cross-disciplinary with the arts. [watch & wa/onder] walkshops are part of the long-term research around [consensual art] and a continuation of experimentations from the Sideways Walking Arts Festival that Sinta organized in 2012. A variety of small exercises to return back to the "senses" and in the body, where we can let our trained masterminds have a rest and allow the ob-servant mind to come into play to open up to more ways of seeing & being.
 |  |
|---|---|
 |  |
 |  |
October 2023
Khmer Literature Festival, Koh Kong, Cambodia
Sinta & I were ready to bring another Poetic Garden for the 6th Khmer Literature Festival now in Koh Kong with [watch & wa/onder] walkshop threading different poetry readings in the vicinity of the festival center. Trying out new variations with the sun & the wind to open up more ways of seeing and being.
With thanks to all the literature friends and all the volunteers making more memorable moments! In collaboration with Khmer Literature Festival.
 |  |
|---|---|
 |  |
 |  |
 |  |
 |  |
 |  |
 |  |
 |  |
 |
July 2023
La forêt（ラ・フォレ）, Kochi, Shikoku Island, JAPAN
In 2011 Sinta & Hisako (Yamaura) met at TPAM in Yokohama, a platform that brings artists & cultural workers from the performing arts together. Meanwhile, Sinta doubled her base between Brussels & Phnom Penh, Hisako-san moved from Tokyo to Kōchi, a coastal city on Shikoku island, and one full cycle of 12 years later in 2023, Sinta, Hisako & I found a meaningful way to come over to Kōchi for a cultural exchange of art practices: Sinta & I would bring the experience of [watch & wa/onder] to people in Kochi while deepening our experience of the region through a 5-weeks residency with the Hamadas, a family of paper manufacturers who have been keeping the art of "washi" alive for 7 generations! For centuries and now part of UNESCO's cultural heritage, Washi (和紙) is the traditional paper that graces the walls & sliding doors in Japanese homes. Nowadays theatermaker Ayumi Hamada is activating washi into the arts, where this versatile paper material is reimagined for various applications via her company Washi+. According to the seasons Ayumi's home & papermill gathers artists & wwoofers fascinated by the processes of Washi and all kinds of experimentations with this fibreful material. Besides wallpaper, washi is also a weaving material for clothes, household products, artefacts, statues and museums buy in washi as restoration material for old paintings and books.
We had the experience of a life time all in the lovely company of Ayumi, Hiroma-san, Myu, Masumi, Elena, Ivan, Tiphanie, Kitaoka-san, Takeda-san and the biggest thanks to Hisako Yamaura with her lovely daughters Isa-chan & Mito-chan for making it all happen to bring us to Japan for an adaptation of our walkshop [watch & wa/onder] to Japan and facilitating an in-depth experience of Kōchi.
In collaboration with La forêt
In the press . . .
LA FORET: https://lafrt.com/2023/report/4492/
TV KOCHI: https://youtu.be/0RWQNwetMDY
 |  |
|---|---|
 |  |
 |  |
 |  |
 |  |
 |  |
 |  |
 |
October 2022
Khmer Literature Festival, Pursat, Cambodia
For the occasion of the 5th Khmer Literature Festival, Sinta & I were asked to give shape to their program Poetic Garden and let [watch & wa/onder] walkshop to host reading sessions. Earlier in 2022 I designed a poetry book collective (Cambodian Women Poetry ពុកម៉ែខ្ញុំស្រី) with 38 women and 1 non-binary, of which 5 contributors participated in the Khmer Literature Festival: SOR Randa, KIM Heng, SETH Bopha, TEAV Bandol and myself! This time, the setting was Pursat Highschool that has large terrains of open space and the expectations were 20 people joining for a 2-hour walkshop. Somehow 50 people, among them were students, literature lovers and writers, showed up and instead of the usual 6 hours calm and easy time of wandering and wondering, the exercises were now spirited and pumped up like fireworks and the fun of roller-coaster rides. Concentrating the energies and attention of 50 people in a shorter time span, generated very different dynamics than all our previous experiences with [watch & wa/onder] which made us think about various types of magic: white magic that sprinkles and inspires the mind in a refreshing way quite peacefully, black magic that propels the dynamics with energetic pushes and pulls into strong vibrations and rainbow magic that sparkles the senses in zillion of colors shooting out from participants like CareBears.
For this edition of Khmer Literature Festival, I also made an exhibition of novel covers from the old days.
In collaboration with Khmer Literature Festival.
 |  |
|---|---|
 |  |
 |  |
 |  |
 |  |
 |  |
 |  |
 |
December 2019
Sambor Preykuk, Kampong Thom, Cambodia
Before the children of Sambor Preykuk have a day trip to Angkor Wat, they join us for some [watch & wa/onder] time. We decided to set up the exercises in the outdoor environment behind their classroom, so that they will have a different relation with the surroundings they know so well. Unhabiting our habits becomes very playful an fun with the kids of 12 years old, who have another take on the exercises than adults. With the young adults and their teachers, we approached things more pedagogically, exposing the methods of opening up our mind and mobilize it beyond its previous concepts. Often our mind is limited by what it knows from experience, when it is told to think a certain way and when it likes to define and categorize. Here we let go of the mind and let the senses speak directly with the surrounding without mediation or interference of thoughts or the mind.
With thanks to An Raksmey.
 |  |
|---|---|
 |  |
 |  |
 |  |
 |  |
 |  |
 |  |
 |  |
 |  |
 |
March 2018
Invited by Berline Semarang
Semarang, Indonesia
Walk where we take time to "observe" our environment, "get lost" in our ways and "imagine" what it and we all can be. Moving in different ways, we will try to unhabit our habits in the surroundings of Old Town in Semarang.
