Healing, as much as art, is a praxis. It is something to do and it does something: it restores. At Artspeak, we hosted a one-month long Sensing Salon, in which we explored healing as an art form, a praxis of sensing and making sense that includes studying, thinking, reading and restoring experiments that reach for the deepest level of our entangled existence.

A studio for the practice of healing arts, the Sensing Salon hosted sessions of Poethical Readings, a study group dedicated to experiments in entangled existence, and gathered a range of reading and healing tools that remained available in the space. Invited artists Constantina Zavitsanos and Amalle Dublon shared their approcah to the speculative planning practice of Astrology through a public reading and a workshop. Valentina Desideri led a one-day workshop to share her practices of Fake Therapy and Political Therapy. Invited artist Justine A. Chambers hosted “Rest to Move to Rest” a workshop that will consider the space between rest and simple repetitive movements adapted from social dance, somatic practice and western contemporary dance. Invited artist and resercher Mariana Marcassa shared “Sound Journeys” a workshop and experimentation on sound.

In partnership with the Critical + Creative Social Justice Studies Research Program, UBC Social Justice Institute, the Sensing Salon and Artspeak hosted an iteration of the Elemental Panel: AIRWAVES: Anti-Colonial Methods. The Elemental Panels program assembles academics, artists, and activists whose contributions to critical racial, anti-colonial, and feminist thought and practice draw from the signifying richness of the elements—air, water, fire, and earth.

The Salon remained open and available for use from Thursday to Saturday, 12–5pm, and was punctuated by weekly contributions and events by the invited guests and artists. The Sensing Salon run from Nov 24th to Dec 16th, 2017.