Whose body is my body?

Whose body is my body? In recent years, many Central and Eastern European dance and theatre artists have made performances that seem to try to answer this strange question. We are witnessing -- and not for the first time -- people's bodies being held hostage. Being conscripted into actively fighting armies. Being broken or destroyed in reprehensible, one-sided attacks of attrition. All of a sudden, it is easier to notice how other bodies, especially women’s bodies, are objectified and commodified. How the work of people’s bodies, as well as bodies’ compulsive needs, are exploited for gains. And just how vulnerable and fragile the individual’s body can be in this world… 

What is the alternative to seeing the human body as a resource? Or is the body, along with the landscape, plants, animals, and raw materials, simply to be exploited to the point of extinction? After all, as we know all too well, resources are extracted, harvested, and, too often, culled…

Thankfully, innovative artists are exploring and demonstrating ways of resisting this external takeover of the body: we can be witnesses, observers and participants in courageous practices that reconnect us to the sacredness of our bodies and to self-awareness. That empower us to make our own decisions about our bodies, respect consent, and fearlessly celebrate our bodies, their sexuality, their voice, and their freedom.

These artists' practices, research, and works also suggest we can recognize and accept our bodies as part of something larger than us: something spiritual, something linked to our community, our democracy, the defence of the work of generations that is freedom, and the shared landscapes and foundations of life that transcend our political borders.