The Body Mapping Workshop & Slideshow

Workshops run over 5 full days and are conducted in a place near the participants’ homes.  We make sure the space - often a community centre or church hall - is comfortable and confidential as well as big enough for 12 pieces of big canvas on the ground. 

In order to provide an emotionally safe place to remember, rework and share personal experiences, much emphasis is placed on respectful and caring partner work, open group exchange, and non-judgmental creative work.  Combining elements from art therapy, narrative therapy and body work / dance movement therapy, we guide participants through a clearly defined sequence of exercises and creative tasks which provide containment for emotionally intense material.

This first day is dedicated to getting to know each other and loosing any inhibitions in using art materials. In a very playful way, participants start with decorating their own name tags which are then paraded in an improvised "fashion show".

A later exercise takes participants further into drawing as a way of telling one's own story: several questions about one's life (e.g. "where were you born?", "what were the best and most difficult moments in your life?", "what is the vision of your future?") are answered by means of drawing.

The resulting picture stories are shared in the whole group, usually in an atmosphere of celebration and with a sense of pride that with all that each of them has gone through, they are here, alive and full of future dreams.The day ends with much physical activity and informal exchange while we prime the pieces of canvas in preparation of tomorrow's work.
Today marks the beginning work on the actual body maps. To loosen up and come closer, we start with a touch exercise in pairs which allows participants to experience care and acceptance and to explore each other's body shape.

At the end of the exercise we lie down on the canvas while our partner traces the outline of our body. This outline is the foundation of all the following creative work, starting with hand- and foot-prints and the painting of the whole body in a colour meaningful to the artist.

In some workshops, we also add already at this point a second body outline - that of the partner - in the background. This second body represents support and care and will be further developed on day 4.
This is the middle day of the workshop and usually the most intense and change-provoking one. We focus on the development of two painted symbols: the first one to represent one's experience of the virus, the second one to locate and express one's inner strength and personal power.

For both symbols, we guide the group through a meditative body journey and visualization exercise. The resulting drawings are then shared in the group and later used to paint the final versions onto the body map in a meaningful relationship to each other.

The images of this day are often surprising and deeply personal. Since they are not just mental constructs but have arisen out of a meditative state and direct experience in the body, they often contain within them meaning that is inspiring and liberating for its creator. Many participants report feeling relieved and more empowered to contain their illness after having painted the symbol of the virus. The symbol of strength further deepens this sense of being able to sustain or overcome the difficulties in their lives.
After yesterday's looking deep into oneself, we slowly shift our perspective beyond our inner selves today. In a first exercise that brings everyone back into pairs, participants draw each other's portraits which are then painted onto one's own body map.

The next step concerns the question of support in one's life: "Who or what supports (or has supported) you in your life?" Together with a partner, participants exchange thoughts and experiences and then play with different physical positions and ways of being touched that look and feel supportive.

If not done already at an earlier stage, the outline of the supportive partner is then drawn into one's map behind the main body.

To complete the image, the support body is filled with colour and writing to name the particular support present in one's life. To further add a temporal perspective to their body map participants paint their life line. This possibly includes drawings from the first day and covers birth /origin, significant life events, present and future perspective.
On this final day, the focus shifts further to the environment and world we live in. The remaining background space (around the main body, support body and life line) becomes the interface with the wider world / social context and is filled with graffiti-like writing. The writing contains comments on the map and important / urgent messages to the world.

The closing exercise integrates the different aspects of the body map and brings participants back to their own strength and power to shape their own lives. It is a touch and visualization exercise in pairs that helps to internalize one's painted self-image and to carry the power of the symbols within oneself.

The completed body maps are hung up for a group exhibition, and the proud artists are photographed together with their body maps. In a final round, we share closing feedback and first ideas for the use of the maps, personally and within the group's HIV/Aids campaign work.