Non-Violent Kitchen Table

     Non-Violent Kitchen Table is a socially engaging art performance, built on the concept of trauma sensitivity and designed to work with affected communities. The core idea of this performance is to facilitate challenging conversations through a shared, simple creative activity. This activity is designed to be site-specific, offering flexibility in both medium and content.

     Initially, performance was held in Catalyst Arts Gallery in Belfast as a graduation project at iMAE, ArtEZ University of the Arts in 2023. The conversations with attendances centered around personal experiences of living in a post-conflict situation, where either side lives together in the same society, as well as engaging in difficult conversations with friends or family members who hold deeply opposing convictions. The participants were given the simple task of shaping clay. The clay pieces did not necessarily have to represent any meaning, but rather gave a natural and intimate feeling of kitchen-table activity, while at the same time allowing participants to give shape to their thoughts and feelings through their hands.

   In 2024, especially for the Union Conference on Lung Health and with the support of KNCV Tuberculosis Foundation, this performance turned into a meeting point for the communities affected by tuberculosis (TB), activists, scientists, medical professionals, decision-makers. “Non-violent kitchen table” became an alternative panel session, where people of different backgrounds were able to meet each other and discuss their thoughts around TB in a very familiar, down-to-earth setting. The participants were invited to interact with look-like-pills candies. These candies were placed in cans on the table, and attendees were encouraged to reorganize “pills” into patterns while engaging in conversations. The performance highlighted the disparity in access to treatment worldwide. While the WHO promotes shorter TB regimens with fewer side effects, this is not a universal reality.