Heal Me through Your Nightmare
Workshop with Chiarina Chen

Saturday, November 11, 2023, 5–7pm

About the workshop

Venue: Cultbytes HQ, 85 Stanton St, Suite 4A, New York, NY 10002
Date: Saturday, November 11, 2023
Time: 5–7pm
Cost: $0–$75 (Sliding scale)
Register here.

Preparation: Record one of your nightmares in writing/audio and bring it to the workshop. 

Wendy’s Subway is a host venue for two workshops organized as a part of The Immigrant Artist Biennial 2023: Contact Zone.

In the dream-sharing workshop Heal Me Through Your Nightmare, independent curator and writer Chiarina Chen will lead the group to delve into the depths of their unconscious mind, in a posthuman light. Through guided meditation, body connection activities, and reflective writing participants will explore the terrain of nightmares and encounter the raw and unfiltered expressions of pain, fear, absurdity, and hope. Chen’s practices merge uncanny narratives with emotional technology and explores emotions as a technology for amplifying marginalized experiences and enabling collective healing. Dreamsharers will discover the power of collectivity as they share their experiences, emotions, and insights with empathy and understanding.

About the facilitator

Chiarina Chen (b. China) is a New York-based independent curator and writer. From a psychology and art history background, her curatorial praxis explores contemporary pathologies and posthuman kinship. She has produced international projects merging art and emotional technology, ranging from mixed media, sound installations, cyborg performances, and experimental theater. Notable series include Poetics of Inquiry: How to Stay with Trouble (MIT), Collecting Anxiety (Multi Venues in New York City and Worldwide), Is This Intimacy? (University of Applied Arts Vienna and Krinzinger Projekte), Magic Back to Town (Cyborg Foundation), and The Wasteland of the Future (Shanghai Himalayas Museum, Art and Philosophy Center, Fudan University). Earlier at New York FLAG Art Foundation, she landed exhibitions of Jeff Koons, Cecily Brown, Charles Ray, and Betty Tompkins. She has given talks and curated projects at institutions including MIT, Columbia University, Utrecht University, New York University, New York Institute of Technology, and Fudan University.

Chen holds a master’s in Contemporary Art Management and Criticism from Sotheby’s Institute of Art and a bachelor’s in psychology, specializing in cognitive and criminal psychology, from Syracuse University. She is the annual reviewer and curator at the American Society of Media Photography (ASMP) New York Chapter and member of the Posthuman Research Group at New York University.

About the organizer

The Immigrant Artist Biennial presents immigrant artists through various formats, facilitating a platform of support for projects by often overlooked and silenced voices. Founded in 2019 by its artistic director Ukrainian-born, NYC-based artist Katya Grokhovsky TIAB is fiscally sponsored by New York Foundation for the Arts and funded through its host partners, grants, sponsorships, donations, and its Patron Circle.