»Stimpathy. To Be Free(k) in Connection« is a post-workshop performance exploring stimming as collective and relational practice. In a relaxed set up you will be invited to experience and participate in a choreography created together with a group of neurodivergent people from Berlin over the last seven months. Stimming (self-stimulatory behavior) is repetitive movements and sounds that neurodivergent people generate to regulate emotions and sensory processes. Despite the neurodiversity discourse growing, stimming is still rarely viewed as meaningful somatic, cultural or relational practice. Often, it is dismissed, corrected, or pathologized. We aim to shift that lens by engaging in neuroqueering – a practice defined by Dr. Nick Walker as opposing and subverting neurocognitive norms and gender norms at the same time. The practice of stimming questions both neurocognitive and gender norms, very vividly exposing their artificiality. Intersection of gender and neurodivergence affects the ways we navigate the city and use its facilities for work, leisure, socializing, shopping, learning, commuting, etc. Through our project we want to make hypervisible what is usually hidden to empower neurodivergent people and normalize stimming behaviors in public spaces.

Monika Popiel & Paweł Świerczek are a duo working together and separately in the field of performing arts and around. Since January this year they’ve been developing the project STIMPATHY focused on neurodivergent embodiment and stimming within Fresh A.I.R. Residency at Stiftung Berliner Leben.