Intimacy that breaks free from set patterns and conventions is fantastic, creative, and unpredictable—that’s what makes it so appealing, but also quite complex and challenging. In the(AN)OTHER INTIMACYworkshops, we want to embark on this adventure! What’s there to experience? How do I come up with ideas? How do I discover what my deepest needs and longings are? And how do I put them into practice?
The courseON SLOWNESS & INTENSITYmakes slowness the guiding concept of our explorations. It allows us not only to examine our experiences more closely and to grasp their many facets and qualities. Rather, slowness itself becomes a tool for intensification—go sloooooow, baby!
Using elements of meditation and breathwork to help us slow down, we will explore and examine encounters and touch in a playful way during this workshop. We will discover our own bodies and those of others, and learn more about how we deal with pleasure and displeasure, and the diversity of what we enjoy or dislike. We also take a close look at the images we have of ourselves and each other, seeking to question personal and societal patterns and expectations, and making space for personal concerns and topics.
Using slowness as both a strategy and a tool, we then increase the intensity and consciously push our limits and confront challenges—for example, to explore the relationship between pleasure and pain. Our goal in all of this is to discover more about what we truly want—regardless of how we are seen or judged by others—what feels good and right to us, and how we can joyfully put it into practice.
Learn more about (AN)OTHER INTIMACY
The (AN)OTHER INTIMACY workshops aim to give participants an idea of what a playful and alternative “sex-positive” space might look like, how we can create it together, and how we can navigate it. The focus here lies well beyond a normative understanding of intimacy and sexuality that equates sex with nudity, genital touching, and any kind of physical penetration. We prefer to focus on the playful, imaginative, performative, and experimental aspects to touch upon a wide variety of what human bodies and minds are capable of.
We work with tools such as Bodysomatics, the Beginner’s Mind, role-playing, and BDSM-inspired practices, thereby creating diverse opportunities to develop spontaneity and playfulness, to dare to discover what is interesting and desired and what is definitely unwanted, to set boundaries, communicate them, and respect them, but also to invite consensual play and help shape scenes. In this process, playful experimentation becomes both a strategy for discovering new ways of intimate interaction and its primary tool. After two days of getting to know (or reacquainting ourselves with) our playful selves and learning to navigate them, we form a trusting community of experimenters. On Sunday, this community will come together in a PlayArragement—sometimes more structured, sometimes less, yet always carefully designed—to test and celebrate ourselves and our new discoveries in a freer setting.
SCHEDULE
Fri, Nov 17, 2023 - 5:00–11:00 p.m.
Sat, Nov 18, 2023 - 11:00 a.m.–10:00 p.m.
Sun, Nov 19, 2023 - 11:00 a.m.–8:00 p.m.
Please note that the end time for this event may be slightly delayed.
LANGUAGES
German, English
HOSTED BY
Matís d'Arc
COST
Registration fee per person
CHF 77,-
This event is being held under special terms. We also want to make it as inclusive as possible.
For this reason, there is no set price for the workshop in addition to the registration fee. However, we would like to point out that a realistic price for such a workshop—if one wishes to make a living from it (as we certainly try to do with luhmen d’arc)—is closer to about CHF 550 per person.
Additional contributions—taking your own financial situation into account—are therefore very welcome. Payment options—cash or Twint—are available on site.
Please also read all further info below, too.
Further informations
NOTES ON THE EVENT
The goals of our events are collaborative learning within the group, supporting shared processes, and personal development. Couples and all other types of partnerships or group dynamics are welcome, but you should be aware and open to the fact that the courses are not designed as partnership experiences and that we address each person as an individual. For example: To involve all participants equally, we usually work with random partner combinations during the exercises. This means that both same-sex and opposite-sex combinations will occur. Participants should generally be open to working with every person and every body. Exceptions can be discussed on a case-by-case basis.
Gender identity, sexual orientation, age, or membership in marginalized groups such as BBIPoC, migrants, refugees, LGBTQIA*, people with disabilities, etc., are not criteria for registration or participant selection.
We expect you to act with care, be communicative, prioritize consent, and be mindful, and we encourage you to respect your own boundaries and take personal responsibility.
Hate speech will not be tolerated. Please bring "Candy Speech" with you.
We reserve the right to ask participants to leave the workshop if their behavior is hurtful or problematic, and we reserve the right to do so without explanation—though we will likely try to explain it. Workshop fees would then be refunded in full. Any further claims are excluded.
We do our best to accommodate different needs, but our resources are limited. Please contact us if you have any questions.
You can read more about this topic here.
CANCELLATION POLICY
Cancellations are free of charge up to eight weeks before the start of the course, up to four weeks before the start of the course a cancellation fee of 20% of the course fee is due, up to two weeks before the start of the course a cancellation fee of 50% is due. Later cancellations and refunds of participant fees are not possible. However, participants can find substitute participants who will take the booked places. In case of cancellation by the organizer, the course fee will be refunded in full. Further claims are excluded.