Living Breathing Spaces no. 2 – a product of collective hearts –

For the second edition of Living Breathing Spaces – a product of collective hearts – happening on December 11, 2025, we were invited to transform this space (the building of Cultuur&Campus Putselaan, Rotterdam) into what we wish it to be: a place of human connection, welcoming authenticity, expression and collective creativity.

During this evening we made a nearly 2-hour long collective performance-improvisation ´Everything on this Earth is interconnected’, evolving and sounding for almost 2 hours, guided by the practices of four Rotterdam-based artists: Luke Deane (voice exploration, piano, music), Rohiet Tjon Poen Gie (dance exploration, choreography), Froggr Arafat (sound exploration, flutes, soundscapes) & Dorota Márföldi-Matejová (movement and sound exploration, flutes, voice) & the poetry written by all the bodies & souls present. All of this was made possible thanks to supporting, organising and welcoming by Janneke Absil & Kim Bouvy & Katy Taraporevala, in collaboration with Afrikaanderwijk Cooperation.

all photo credits: Jan Malte Röhm

The artists present are all experienced both in their diverse performance practice as well as in practices of experimental education, self-taught learning, creative teaching and collective learning: Rohiet Tjon Poen Gie, a dancer, choreographer and teacher using hip-hop and contemporary techniques as a vehicle to show and shift underexposed perspectives on the subject of colonialism; Luke Deane (also known on stage as ´Lisa´), an artist chameleon, curious performer and composer using music as a tool to facilitate dialogues between unexpected things and people; Froggr Arafat, a multidisciplinary artist exploring the intersections of sound, image, and cultural memory transforming everyday sounds and symbols into immersive narratives of liberation; Dorota Márföldi-Matejová, a musician, performer-composer, educator, poet exploring the many ways of performing and creating connections through authentic expression, vulnerability & shifting and breaking the genre and class boundaries in performance art and between the performer and the audience. 

Through sharing & making collective art duringLiving Breathing Spaces – a product of collective hearts – we want to imagine and make spaces where creativity can be born and can thrive, where ‘culture of education beyond schooling´ can find its home, where authenticity and beauty in diversity of genres and backgrounds can breathe fully, where we can mutually inspire and support each other and where we can listen with our bodies, with our minds and with our spirit.

Creativity is a ´living breathing organism´ & it was magical to experience this together with everyBody present.

written & programmed by Dorota Matejová (freelance artist + educator), august-december 2025
initiated & supported by Janneke Absil (freelance artist, Afrikaanderwijk Wijkcoöperatie)
produced by Kim Bouvy (freelance cultural programmer/producer)

event on 11-december-2025 at Cultuur&Campus Putselaan, Rotterdam | all photo credits: Jan Malte Röhm