Eriko Takeno

Crafting Narrative introduces poetic thinking as an alternative healing tool from anxiety. Italian theorist, Franco ‘Bifo’ Berardi, says in his book, Breathing: Chaos and Poetry (2019), 'the poetical act is a revelation of a possible sphere of experience not yet experienced (that is to say, the experienceable).'

This installation invites the audience to experience the healing power of poetic thinking by following the artist’s own journey of poetic discovery and emotional recovery. Eriko Takeno developed her workshop Sensory Multimodal Workshop; Space as Medium, Poetic Thinking as a Tool, as a way to share her own introspective exploration of poetry as a therapy for anxiety with others. 

In the workshop, participants are invited to develop a mindful approach to their own perceptions of the physical environment, and to communicate their experiences with the rest of the group. The workshop unfolds as a triple process of observation, visualization and discussion. Working in collaboration with psychologists in Japan and Australia, Eriko has developed a method of somatic thinking through poetry, which allows the practitioner to deconstruct traumatic narratives of anxiety and to shape them into new narratives by activating a mutual connection between the internal and external spaces of one’s own body.