Impossible Conversation on the Intimate Stranger

Platform Building Conversation / Peter Aers

How do we talk about something that seems distant but also close? About something that feels strange but intimate at the same time? For Impossible Conversation on the Intimate Stranger we were inspired by the practice of Jesuits monks, who developed a conversational method for discussing abstract concepts. It involves slowing down with each other and linking together personal views by writing, reading and talking together.

PETER AERS (Ghent, 1973) is a performance artist. He obtained a M.A. in Philosophy at Ghent University and Geneva, and studied the Jacques Lecoq method of acting in Brussels. He has developed ‘Everything Depends on How a Thing is Thought’, a series of conversational performances which deal with pain, the future, and crime and punishment. Central to the creation-process and the performances are the participants; how they choose to communicate, and the relationship between these individuals and the community they are part of.

Peter is part of Building Conversation. Inspired by conversation techniques from all over the world they execute and perform different conversation formats together with participants in cities all over Europe. He has collaborated on several projects with artist Dora García for the Sculpture Project in Münster, the Venice and Liverpool Biennial.