The project Body // Language // Archive is a workshop format which started in 2014. It uses artistic methods to deal with discrimination and eliminatory violence in the past and present. In a series of international encounters the participants follow the traces that violent conflicts have left behind.

The history of the concrete places, where our workshops take part, is the starting point for our work. We focus on individual and personal experiences of exclusion and deprivation of rights. We aim to get in touch with the past of a place by asking ourselves: What can be a working definition of the term „history“ to us, when we understand our own bodies as archives and media? What role does language play in structuring our memories in this context? What does remembering consist of, when factual correctness can’t become the sole criteria for a common work with the past? And what can we learn from that to develop an emancipatory stance?

Besides the work on specific contents, the encounters aim at broadening the aesthetic perception of each participant. We offer a platform to experiment with a variety of media, methods and genres that serves as a starting point to continue working on the topics, materials and artistic approaches beyond the time of the workshop.