CYCLE

With LOVE*MARKET*WORK we started our cycle in the chapel of the Helferei Zurich. In the form of an alternative, costumed speed dating event, we explored the question of how our own network of relationships is made up. Costumes were available for the guests to dress up in as they wished.

A selection of question cards was available for the discussion rounds, which the guests could ask each other. To liven things up before and between the talks, dancer Linda Trolese introduced us to the world of Bal-Folk, accompanied by live music from accordionist Zé Oliveira. Anna Cherepanova and Vitalii Cherepanov (CID) documented the evening with drawings.

Linda Trolese gives workshops, courses and entire seminar weeks in ‘Bal-Folk’ and contact improvisation. She has taught dance modules at the ZHdK (Zurich University of the Arts), Switzerland, performed in various stage plays and is a co-founder of the ‘Association Vivante’ in France. She completed her dancing training at SEAD (Salzburg Experimental Academy of Dance), Austria and at TIP Freiburg im Breisgau, Germany. She now resides in Zurich, Switzerland.

Zé Oliveira interprets folk music in a new way. He incorporates elements of Jazz, Blues, Musette, Tango, Funk and World Music into his own compositions and interpretations. He plays for dance, performance, theatre and celebrations of all kinds, such as ‘in the tram’ or as a hospital musician (Dipl. DUMIMS France). He creates cinema concerts with his own digitally generated image compositions. He now resides in Zurich, Switzerland.

For LOVE*CARE*WORK, we invited four experts from the 24-hour care sector. To kick off the evening, we started with the exercise "Sound Forest" (after Augusto Boal), which playfully makes trust and responsibility tangible: In groups of two, one person leads their partner through the room with a sound, while the other person follows the sound with their eyes closed.

In group discussions, our four experts shared their experiences and knowledge with us. Bożena Domańska and Regina D. talked about their everyday working life, their living conditions and how their families manage without them. Sarah Schilliger reported on the political background and social realities of this precarious labour market and Nora Riss from FIZ on the legal situation.

Bożena Domańska has worked in 24-hour elderly- and nursing -care in Germany and Switzerland for 32 years. In 2013, she was the first carer in Switzerland to successfully demand better working conditions and paid overtime in a court of law. She was nominated for the ‘Prix Courage’ for this action. She described her situation in documentary films and on the ‘Club SRF’ TV Programme. She was a co-founder of the Respekt@vpod network, which campaigns for better working conditions for private carers, organises meetings, offers advice and carries out public relations work. She originates from Poland, completed a carpentry apprenticeship there and ran her own farm with her husband. She now lives in Basel, Switzerland, and has a grown-up daughter and a granddaughter, both of whom also live in Basel, Switzerland.

Regina D. has been working in 24-hour elderly- and nursing -care in Switzerland for 14 years, and for the same service provider for 10 years. She is also a member of the Respekt@vpod network. She studied German and previously worked as a nurse in Poland. She is the mother of four grown-up children and commutes between Wroclaw in Poland and Basel, Switzerland.

Sarah Schilliger examined in her thesis for her Dissertation "Caring without Borders?" (2014), the working and living realities of Polish female care workers. She placed the development of this fragile labour market in the context of changing gender relations, current upheavals in the migration regime and welfare state restructuring, as well as in the care sector. She was involved in setting up the Respekt@vpod network. She is currently leading an international research work project at the University of Berne, Switzerland on solidarity initiatives and social movements in the areas of ‘migrant women’s' rights, housing and care. She is the mother of one son and resides in a large sharing community in Berne, Switzerland.

Nora Riss is a lawyer and project manager at FIZ in the labour exploitation project. This offers legal and victim support counselling and support for women affected by labour exploitation and human trafficking. The focus is on care migrants. FIZ is a specialist centre for trafficking in women and women's migration and helps those affected by human trafficking, violence and exploitation. Nora Riss is based in Aarau.

On this evening, we invited working and non-working people to cook with us and eat with other guests who came to eat after work. While cooking and eating together, we exchanged views on how our voluntary or involuntary non-work or our gainful employment affects our lives and our personal environment. 

Anna Cherepanova and Vitalii Cherepanov documented the evening with drawings.

For LOVE*SEX*WORK, sex educators Heike Junge and Christoph Stalder have prepared a workshop on the topic of stress and sexuality. Based on theoretical knowledge, they worked out which factors can promote or inhibit lust. Through playful and sensual exercises and self-reflection, we explored lust, intimacy and self-love. We explored the question of how everyday working life, stress, excessive and insufficient demands affect each other and how we can bring more sensuality and pleasure into our lives.

Heike Junge is sex educator, social worker, artist and mother. Because topics such as sexuality, gender, physicality, contacts and relationships, boundaries and feelings, the media, pornography and diversity are important aspects of her work as a social worker, and are also important to society at large, she decided in 2019 to deepen her knowledge within the Sex Education Degree Programme. She lives in Zurich, Switzerland.

Christoph Stalder is interested in sensuality and the power of sexual energy in all areas and situations of everyday life. He works as a school social worker and as a sex educator in schools. He is also a nature and wilderness trainer and househusband. He lives in Aarau, Switzerland.

At an intergenerational storytelling workshop, participants were able to anonymously exchange ideas on the topic of love and work. At the beginning of the evening the attendees read stories which were collected earlier to get us in the mood for the topic. Afterwards, all participants had time to write down their experiences, thoughts and ideas. In the final round, the collected texts were read out anonymously.

The evening started in the foyer of the Helferei, where Imran Mushter Nafees showed pictures, videos and texts that were created in collaboration with migrant workers in Pakistan. This was followed by the multidisciplinary performance "Pardes" by Imran and Amna Mawaz Khan, accompanied by live music by Trixa Arnold and Ilja Komarov. Through theatre, dance, video and music, "Pardes" tells the story of migrant workers from Pakistan who travel to the Gulf region in search of work and what it means to lead a life of absence and longing. The production was performed in the chapel of the Helferei, with the entire room serving as a stage and the audience being able to move freely around the room during the performance.

Imran Mushter Nafees is a graphic and performing artist. With his art, he seeks to contribute to social and political change, disrupt the status quo and question power structures. He transforms his own fragility and emotional nature into an epistemic position, which encourages the production of a multi-layered dialogue. He creates platforms, which empower people to express themselves, including women and children from marginalised communities. He is a founding member of the Institute of Performing Arts, the Artist Collective Dugdugi (Islamabad), and the creative resistance group 'Laal Hartaal'. He exhibits and hosts national and international platforms. He grew up in a migrant labourer's family and has been exploring their stories of ‘unbelonging’ with workers and their relatives for several years. He currently lives in Karachi, Pakistan.

Amna Mawaz Khan works at the interface of art and politics, with the intention of scratching at the solidified surface structures, which sustain inequality in the world. At the age of eleven, she began training in South Asian dance forms under Guru Indu Mitha. She holds a Master’s Degree in Pakistan Studies from Quaid-i-Azam University (Islamabad), and is currently pursuing another Master’s Degree in Transcultural Studies at the University of Heidelberg, Germany. She moves between the dance, acting, writing and film art forms. She has worked as a choreographer, directed and acted in theatre performances. She has performed and given workshops in Pakistan, India, China, Switzerland, the U.S.A., Germany and the U.K.. She divides her time between Islamabad and Heidelberg.

During our residency in Manchester, we continued our research. At the Intergenerational Storytelling Workshop, people from different generations came together and exchanged stories anonymously. At the Dance and Talk Workshop we danced Dandiya with the artist Deshna Shah and had conversations in groups of two.

While in Manchester we had the pleasure of meeting Jolene Sheehan. Through her social enterprise Joy Ethic, Jolene organises wellbeing experiences in workplaces and communities that help individuals to connect with themselves and those around them in meaningful ways. One such experience is the community writing project The Stories of our Lives in Manchester.

Jolene contributed to our LOVE**WORK project with two workshops she held in Manchester on the 3rd and 17th of august. The Participants were invited to share their thoughts, experiences and stories on how love and work intersect and affect their lives. They began the workshops by sharing their initial thoughts on the theme. Following this, they selected two or three pieces of writing from a collection of printouts and proceeded with participants taking turns to read aloud selected pieces, which naturally led to further thoughts and discussions.

Jolene contributed to our LOVE**WORK project with two workshops she held in Manchester on the 3rd and 17th of august. The Participants were invited to share their thoughts, experiences and stories on how love and work intersect and affect their lives. They began the workshops by sharing their initial thoughts on the theme. Following this, they selected two or three pieces of writing from a collection of printouts and proceeded with participants taking turns to read aloud selected pieces, which naturally led to further thoughts and discussions. 

The workshop provided a valuable space for the group to reflect on important issues such as identity, status, values and the resulting contradictions. The theme of work emerged as a theatre for these dynamics to play out, with a unifying thread being the importance of self-love. The participants who were mainly 70 years old brought all a special and valuable perspective. Their reflections are marked by curiosity, compassion, and an acute awareness of how age, societal, and cultural pressures shape our relationship with work. These workshops allow participants to acknowledge the wisdom gained from their life experiences, a value often underappreciated in our society.

We are very grateful to Jolene and Joy ethic for their important and valuable work and for participating in our LOVE**WORK project. We hope we will get another chance to collaborate with Jolene.