Monsters Circle

This event is part of the festival organized by the emergence network.

The Becoming Monster festival is an ecology of spaces to feel, share, experiment and practice opening ourselves to the unknown, the unthinkable and unsayable. The aim of the festival is not to identify or name monsters, nor to redraw hard lines around the right and the good. Becoming Monster isn’t a prescription to cure the world’s ills. It is an exploration into a different materiality of grief and care in a time of loss, a celebration of our failures to become, an invitation to reimagine, re-feel and re-intuit what else it might mean to be human beyond the carceral narratives of white modernity.

Becoming Monster is a five-day festival with virtual, hybrid and in-person components hosted by ten (The Emergence Network) and a strange ecology of friends and partners (non-human and human alike) from around the planet. This event is a space held for grieving the losses that come with living into the end-times AND playing with ideas of fabulation, imagination and questioning: what else might the human be in our crumbling, entangled, pulsating, animist world(s).

About the Monsters Circle.

The Monsters Circle is a courageous, vulnerable and warm space to share all the emotions that we feel as we see ourselves transforming and shape-shifting, either voluntarily or unvoluntarily, to live in a world of climate instability. We will explore the emotions of becoming monsters, or feeling monstruous, in the sense that we cannot quite grasp who and what we are becoming in real time. We will welcome all emotions, including unfathomable emotions, and will encourage participating monsters or monsters-in-the-making to share their emotions through any media: spoken word, performance, visual or multimedia arts…

What will be the format of the event?

The Monsters Circle is participatory, embodied and artistic. It is open to all adults. It will be introduced in English but could evolve into conversations in German or any other languages shared in the room.

The Monsters Circle will be based on the principles of improvised, uncensored sharing and deep listening. We are neither fostering a dialogue, nor trying to collectively make sense of our individual experiences. We are providing an opportunity to welcome, express and release all the emotions that accompany the shape-shifting process in a group that is not there to judge, advise nor solve anything. We are offering participants the opportunity to connect to each other through stories, and to possibly deepen their shape-shifting by unlocking an openness to change. This Circle is an embodied experimentation with emotions.

The Monsters Circle is also a space for artistic/cultural expression, for those who identify themselves as artists and others. We will welcome the sharing of emotions through all artistic media, any language and any types of performances. Please come prepared to be in a brave space. We see this Monsters Circle as an ephemeral collective work of art.

What felt experience do we wish to create?

We want to give you the opportunity to feel that you can be whole without shame, and that you do not have to hide your perceived monstrosity. We would like to create an experience that feels like exploring a space you do not even know, being lost with others you have just met, and enjoying yourself still, while possibly being terrified. We want to create openness and spaciousness to a multiplicity of seemingly contradictory emotions and thoughts, while feeling that we are playfully touching upon a critical part of the deep cultural and societal transformation process that we need to address the climate crisis.

Do you have to come prepared?

Yes, in the sense that it is a space for free uncensored expression that may feel uncomfortable or triggering for some, as we welcome all emotions warmly.

You are also welcome to come with a text, an image, a performance and/or a costume you would like to put on so as to share your emotions.

Last, you're welcome to come without any idea of what you are going to share with the group, or how you are going to share it, and use this space for improvisation.

The Monsters Circle is organized in collaboration with tak Theater Aufbau Kreuzberg.

Photo credits: Tomas Sroka

Painting credits: Krista Dragomer for the emergence network (ten)

Host or Publisher One Resilient Earth