Lesson 4: Leave

    Closing without finishing
    There is a difference between finishing and leaving.
    Finishing suggests that something has reached its final form. That we understand what happened. That the questions have been answered and the material resolved.
    Leaving is different.
    We can leave a place while something continues growing there.
    We can leave an experience without fully understanding it.
    We can carry something with us without knowing what it will become.
    This is how I would like us to close Performance & Nature.
    Not with a conclusion.
    With a departure.

    1. Return to the beginning

    Think back to the first morning of the Masterclass.
    Before soil.
    Before the Danube.
    Before climate.
    Before these people became this group.
    Return to the body that arrived.
    Without looking at your answers from Day 1, write two short descriptions:
    Stay concrete.
    Perhaps your attention changed.
    Perhaps your pace changed.
    Perhaps nothing dramatic changed, but something became more precise.
    Don't look for improvement.
    Look for movement.

    2. Take / Leave / Carry

    Draw three spaces on a page:

    • TAKE
    What do you consciously want to take from this month?
    A practice.
    A principle.
    A question.
    A relationship.
    A physical sensation.
    A way of paying attention.
    Choose only a few things.

    • LEAVE
    What can stay here?
    An expectation.
    A resistance.
    A certainty.
    A frustration.
    Something that served its purpose and doesn't need to travel further.
    Leaving something does not mean rejecting it.
    Sometimes we simply don't need to carry everything.
    ​
    • CARRY
    This is different from take.
    What are you already carrying whether you choose it or not?
    Something unresolved.
    Something that entered your body.
    A question that follows you.
    An image that refuses to disappear.
    Something you cannot yet place.
    Don't solve it.
    Name it and let it travel.

    3. Return to your attic

    Open yesterday's attic one last time.
    Look at what you stored there.
    Today, you are allowed to make one change.
    Move one thing.
    Remove one thing.
    Add something you forgot.
    Put two things together.
    Close a room.
    Open another shelf.
    Only one intervention.
    Then stop.
    An archive does not need to be perfect before we leave it.

    4. Make a marker

    Choose one small physical trace of these four weeks.
    It can be something you already have:
    a stone,
    a photograph,
    a piece of clay,
    a drawing,
    a sentence,
    a leaf,
    a map,
    a sound recording,
    an object from your pocket.
    Or make something extremely simple today.
    This is not an artwork.
    It is a marker.
    Something that says: I was here.
    Place it somewhere in your everyday environment where you will encounter it again.
    You don't need to decide what it means.
    Let time work on it.

    5. Close the month

    Find somewhere you can be alone for a few minutes.
    Sit, stand, lie down, or walk.
    Return briefly to the three conditions we travelled through:

    • SOIL
    Feel what supports you.
    Your weight.
    Gravity.
    The surface underneath you.

    • WATER
    Notice what is moving.
    Breath.
    Blood.
    Temperature.
    Thought.
    Let something pass.

    • CLIMATE
    Notice the conditions around and inside you.
    Distance.
    Sound.
    Light.
    Presence.
    Absence.

    ​Don't change anything.
    Stay for a moment.
    Then leave.

    Before you go

    Module 1 was never meant to give you a finished work.
    It was meant to give you material before material becomes work.
    For three weeks, you practiced receiving.
    You learned from solidity without having to become solid.
    From water without having to become fluid.
    From climate without having to make the invisible visible.
    You collected through your body, through other bodies, through places, materials, weather, movement, conversations, discomfort, pleasure, attention.
    Some of it is already clear.
    Some of it may return months from now.
    Some of it may never become an artwork at all.
    That does not make it wasted.
    The attic is full.
    Thank you for the attention you gave to this month, to the facilitators, to the environments we entered, to one another, and to yourselves.
    Thank you for trusting a process that did not ask you to arrive somewhere.
    Rest.
    Let things settle.
    And when something from these weeks knocks on the door again, you will know where you stored it.

    One last thing: your feedback on Week 4