Present! v.3.0.2

Present! v.3.0.2
Sunday, November 29, 2020
11am–1pm EST on Zoom

Free and open to all with registration

Click here to register to participate in the event; there will not be a recording of this Present!

“Dream-life becomes most politically potent in its verbal disclosure.”
—Sharon Sliwinski

Please join us on Sunday, November 29, for a special episode of Present!: a “social dreaming matrix” led by L.A.-based psychologist and psychoanalyst George Bermudez together with artist Connie Samaras. This two-hour participatory workshop focuses on the “social unconscious” and the collective sharing of dreams. Using a methodology developed over the several decades, Bermudez will host this workshop as a way to associate with, reflect upon, and consider together what our dreams can tell us about the state of society today. The event is free and open to all with pre-registration; instructions will be emailed to all participants in advance.

BIOGRAPHIES

Dr. George Bermudez, Ph.D., Psy.D., is a psychologist/psychoanalyst and Training & Supervising Psychoanalyst at The Institute of Contemporary Psychoanalysis Los Angeles. Over the past decades, Dr. Bermudez has explored the social unconscious through the collective practice of social dreaming. His “social dreaming matrixes” have focused on numerous contemporary socio-political concerns, including xenophobia, Whiteness and psychoanalysis, Black reparations, and the LGBTQ unconscious in the Trumpian era. He is currently developing a synthesis of social dreaming and community psychoanalysis that can contribute to reflective citizenship and the emergence of an inclusive form of deliberative democracy.

Connie Samaras is an artist and writer based in Los Angeles. Often referencing science/speculative fiction, her overall practice is engaged with mapping the multiple intersecting political psychological geographies in the everyday moment and the shifting possibilities of change.

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FRONT is hosting the upcoming season of Present!, an online series launched by our Artistic Director Prem Krishnamurthy at the beginning of the pandemic to counteract isolation and support new forms of community. This experimental program is part virtual seminar, part talkshow, part Sunday sermon and often includes karaoke, meditation, or dance, alongside readings, screening, performances, and discussion groups. Produced out of Berlin—and now streamed live from Cleveland—Present! brings together artists, designers, curators, writers, musicians, and other creative folks across borders and disciplines.

The new season of Present! will explore some of the themes of FRONT’s 2022 exhibition, which focuses on art as an agent of transformation, a mode of healing, and a therapeutic process. With special guests from Cleveland and around the world, Present! prototypes a diverse, participatory, and hybrid platform for sharing emergent tools, perspectives, and experiences. Please join us on Sunday mornings once a month to listen, learn, sing, and dance with us!