Residency Silva Bieler, Ariana Emminghaus and Lee Everett Thieler

The photo was taken in a rehearsal studio. In the middle is a three-step white model staircase. Ariana, Silva and Lee sit on a three-step white model staircase in the middle. On the left sits Ariana, slightly turned towards the other two, smiling into the camera. She is German-Iranian and in her late 20s. She wears comfortable sportswear and her long brown hair down. Next to her, in the middle of the top step, sits Silva (30). Silva is a white non-binary person with short blond curls in comfortable sportswear. They prop themselves up with both hands and laugh into the camera. To Silva's right sits Lee. Like Ariana, Lee is a little turned towards the other two, one elbow casually resting on the top step. Lee is 30, a non-binary/trans person and has short curly brown hair that is already graying a bit at the roots. Lee also wears comfortable sports clothes and smiles into the camera. In the ceiling above them is a round window through which light falls on the three of them. In the background there are two black loudspeakers on the left and right.

Are there choreographies of diagnostics?

And would there be spaces for improvisation in them?

During their research residency from November 11-17, 2024, Silva Bieler, Ariana Emminghaus and Lee Everett Thieler explore these and other questions. All three have different disciplinary backgrounds. What they share is the experience of repeatedly being denied an expertise on themselves in medical contexts. ‘But if we are experts for anything, it is for ourselves.’ Silva, Ariana and Lee understand the residency as a space that allows for encounters free from stigmatisation and pathologisation. Their wish: the search for new forms of communication that demand real connection and attunement.