Metamorphosis
METAMORPHOSIS, the 5th edition of Kaleido Retreat, took from place from 31.08 – 04.09.2022 at Fougerette Castle in France.
Metamorphoses, or processes of transformation, have been occurring since the beginning of time. Metamorphosis in nature is a process of evolving from an old structure or form to something anew, often through pain, death, reconfiguration, and renewal. Currently, we are all experiencing transformations of an exponential nature in a multitude of dimensions in our conscious environment, that neither our minds, body’s, institutions or nature itself can barely cope. Ways of working, living, relating, eating, communicating are changing.
With a conscious and committed intent to developing a deeper understanding of the mechanisms of the metamorphoses, at the physical, mental and emotional levels, we have the potential to steer our individual selves and the planet to states of better health and wellbeing.
We have invited speakers and workshop leaders who are providing a blueprint about how to create positive change in the world. We aim for us all, as participants at Kaleido, to feel inspired and create our own personalized way to design positive impact for our lives and for our planet.
Programme
The Systems View of Life
Knowledge Belongs To All People
Experiments in Universal Basic Income and new Forms of Business
The Story of Food, Community and Leadership
Everything Gardens
Scaling Regenerative Agriculture in Europe
Philippe founded Climate Farmers with a mission to build the infrastructure to scale regenerative agriculture in Europe. The unparalleled potential of regenerative agriculture to store carbon in the ground and restore healthy ecosystems, all while improving the livelihood of farmers must be brought to its full potential.
Looking through the lens of Interbeing to unfold our futures
Why? Looking through the lens of ‘Interbeing’ (Thich Nhat Hanh[1]) to unfold the future, empowers us to show up as luminaries transforming our communities.
How? Using futures-thinking tools, we can identify and explore the gap between the futures that we want and where we are today, which enables us to initiate and effect change in the present in all areas of our lives.
What?
- Work in groups to play with the futures scenario.
- Explore what looking through the lens of ‘interbeing’ means for each person (personally, professionally).
- Describe that interbeing future (individually/group)
- Build/Draw (out of whatever materials are around) an ‘artifact’ from that future.
- Share back to the group/s.
- Collate into a Kaleido ‘tapestry’ of artifacts.
- Each person makes a personal commitment to use the lens in their life as part of their metamorphosis.
[1] https://www.garrisoninstitute.org/blog/insight-of-interbeing/
The Sum of All Pieces
A mosaic is an image made of small pieces of ceramic, glass or stone. Mosaics are often used as floor ,wall and ceiling decoration, as well as pots, baths and sculpture, and were particularly popular in the Ancient Roman world. In the 19 century, Gaudí, pioneered a special mosaic design technique called Trancadis. The world Trencar, equivalent for “to break” in Catalan, which means precisely that. This style of mosaics is created by breaking tiles in an organic manner and putting them back together. Trancadice cement tiles is an innovative technique that consists of implementing the mosaic pieces into the cement tile during the production process. The trencadís pieces add new dimensions, such as texture, reflections and freedom to use dynamic shapes. This contemporary approach invites the viewer to enter the story and experience the mystery, growth and movement. The innovative technique combines two worlds of crafts that have been separated – the cement tiles and mosaics. This connection creates the metamorphosis from the traditional tile to the new trencadís tile. as the title indicates, the process of mosaics is done piece by piece. The workshop demonstrates the metamorphosis from a single broken piece of ceramic to being part of something whole that could not have been completed without this specific piece of broken ceramic tile. Each participant will receive a square surface with outlines as guides for a mosaic work, the color, shapes and size would be up to the participants. Those guides will allow, later on, for all the works to connect together and create a large and clear image. Each individual work has a designated spot in the final composition. In the end, each participant will take their piece home, knowing it is part of a much greater work of art that can be experienced only when united.
Social Permaculture and Neighbourocracy
Using creativity and fun as a base for healthy and thriving eco-social landscapes.
Horizontal project management and participatory governance as direct action to face global crisis and climate change. The new ethical social paradigm of life in harmony with nature and each other. Local solutions for global problems creating proposals with neighbourocracy bottom-up strategies and design. How to create human living systems operating under the principles and guidelines of nature.
The Eco-Artivist Initiation
Join us for an immersive experience where we explore the knowledge, tools and skills we need to create effective change on a personal, social and environmental level. Where we embody what it means to cultivate ourselves and others as holistic, productive and inspiring New Earth Leaders. Where we take responsibility to boost our ecology and our psychology through the arts. Where we co-create a video-clip which artistically expresses the depth of our commitment and opens the doors for others to a new world where we are living in harmony with ourselves, each other and the earth. Welcome to the Eco-Artivist Initiation!
What are Eco-Artivists all about?
Eco-Artivists enjoy life as an art and for the earth do their part – they are creative, they do what they love, they earn an ethical livelihood and deeply understand and infuse ecological practices into their daily life and work
Eco-Artivists have a calling to use their artistic and creative expression to inspire the collective to connect with, protect and care for each other and mama earth
Eco-Artivists are space-holders, activators and light workers who lead with clarity, discernment and vision. They lay the groundwork for change to a beautiful world.
Cultivating Compassion in Times of Change
Ecstatic Dance
For this special gathering, Jkson has prepared an Ecstatic Dance for the morning to share with all of us. These last years, Jkson has been recording, ceremonial songs, native communities which will be presented in this performance in hybrid live set with unreleased tracks and some samples that you will remember from some sonorous trip. A journey from the inside out, connecting your inner self with your moving body.
Playfight
The playful combination of guided exercises on authentic movements and contact improvisation quickly ensure the free flow of emotional, physical and intellectual forces.Using group games, partner exercises, and the creative application of movement principles, we explore concepts such as confrontation, collaboration, physicality and means of contact. Using imagination and simple tools such as balls, sticks and ropes, we will playfully poeticize, process or recycle uncontrollable external events.
Transforming the World into Sound
In this workshop I would like to propose an approach to use our ears as our guidance to sharpen our awareness and realise that many simple tools around us can be used to create sound, the source of music. With the help of a Digital Audio Workstation we will record these sounds and arrange a composition together, we will learn about the core principles of the creative process, we probably will have a couple laughs and will transform our environment into music and sound. The final musical composition can also be presented.
Morning Gardening
Start your day by connecting to nature! The beautiful surroundings of Which?Garden provide the perfect frame. You will be assigned a simple gardening task. While getting the job done you can stretch your limbs and let your senses soak up the the smell of earth, the chirping of birds, the humming of insects and the fresh morning air. A moment of active meditation that will ground you for the whole day.
Upcyling Plastic Workshop
In this workshop we will play with plastic waste! This is the mission of Precious Plastic.
The global plastic problem is crystal clear and we are here to reduce plastic waste the best we can. One way to do this, is to recycle and transform used plastic into new products. Our solutions see people as the key element to fix the plastic mess.
You will learn about the upcycling process, get to know the different types of plastic, the machines, the process and will be surprised by the beauty of the outcome!
Dynamic Relations
Continuous metamorphosis is the nature of the world and our being. Reflecting our involvement and anchorage in the spectrum of decay and creation, we centre on the turning point as a zero state. It is our aim to address the body as a medium and a space of experience. Being aware of the continuum of nature inside and outside our body, to increase the tangibility of our interconnectedness with other beings and the world.
Combining our backgrounds from architecture and dance, we open the realm to experiment with our moving bodies, discovering their spatial and sensory intra- and interrelations. Introducing body-based practices and techniques we initiate a journey to explore the dynamic relations of change. We indulge into breathing, moving and singing to relate to our individual bodies. Shifting perspective, we let emerge the sensation of the group as a body of manifold individual components. Opening up a playground for attention and witnessing without expectations, a field of shared presence and community.
Dorodango - The Japanese Art of Making Mud Balls
Did you ever make a mud pie as a child? In Japan, children make mud balls, rolling the earth into spheres and polishing them by hand until they gleam. Simply said: dorodango are shiny balls of mud. Dorodango is earth which is shaped by hand into perfect spheres, then dried and finely polished to a seemingly impossible luster, using nothing but a soft cloth. The process to make one sounds quite simple – and though a child can do it, it requires the focus of a Master to truly appreciate the Alchemy of Earth and Spirit. // After teaching the pottery workshop at Kaleido last year, I realised that I could not do justice fully to the lengthy process involved in creating ceramics on the potters wheel – much as it was loved by participants. The focus of this workshop is still on the hands, and the simple material that is earth: but in a simpler form, through the creation of a dorodango
From Nature to Nature - Sustainable Wood Workshop
In this workshop we will create together something useful from recycled wood and give it back to nature. This is a full hands-on workshop and we will be using hand tools and power tools. The result will be presented at the end of the workshop and ready to be used.
Eco-Design
In this workshop, participants will get an idea of how consumer products can be seen as systems to become aware of all lifecycle stages where there are impacts, and what measures can be taken to reduce negative impacts and increase positive impacts. They will receive a surprise product which must be disassembled to discover what is inside of it. Then the idea is to learn how products can be seen as systems to analyze what processes and impacts happened during production, use phase and after the end of life through a simplified lifecycle assessment (LCA). After this, you will explore and select some Eco-Design principles to improve the life cycle performance of the product, and compare your optimized design with the original one. Finally we will share thoughts on the results an conclusions that each team found, compare the optimization ideas and share personal experiences on the topic.
Soul Drumming
Participants will have the opportunity to drum, make music and improvise using elements from African and Arabic rhythms. The goal is not only self-awareness, but also communication: how does playing in a group touch the various aspects of being part of a community? Drumming presents the opportunity for certain experiences to happen, such as a whole-body experience, a sense of the flow of energy in the group or a redefinition of what it means to be an individual in a group.
Speakers and workshop leaders
- Pier Luigi received his scientific education at the Scuola Normale Superiore in Pisa, Italy. In 1970, he became professor at the Institut für Polymere at the ETH-Zürich and since 2006 he is part of the biology department of the University of Roma Tre. As a biochemist, he pioneered an active research in the self-organization of synthetic and biological systems, the origin of life, and semi-synthetic cellular systems (the so-called “mininal life”). Interested in the interface between science and humanities, in 1985 he founded Cortona week, legacy to this Todi-week, and participated, in 1987, to the foundation of Mind and Life in Dharamsala, India, with Francisco Varela and the Dalai Lama.
- Reference
- The Systems View of Life: A Unifying Vision, co-authored with Fritjof Capra, Cambridge University press, New York (2014).
The Emergence of Life: From Chemical Origins to Synthetic Biology, Cambridge University press, New York (2006).
Giant Vesicles (Perspectives in Supramolecular Chemistry), co-authored with Peter Walde, Wiley-Interscience, New York (2000).
Mind and life: discussions with the Dalai Lama on the nature of reality, co-authored with Zara Houshmand, Columbia University Press (2009).
Alexandra is the creator of the website Sci-Hub, which provides free access to research papers. According to a study published in 2018, Sci-Hub provides access to nearly all scholarly literature. In December 2016, the Nature journal named Alexandra as one of the 10 people who most mattered in science that year. She has also been called a modern-day “Robin Hood” and “Science’s Pirate Queen”.
Daniel Häni is an entrepreneur and advocate for universal basic income. In 2006, he founded the “Initiative Grundeinkommen” (Basic Income Initiative) in Switzerland together with the artist Enno Schmidt. In 2008, they released the film “Grundeinkommen – ein Kulturimpuls” (Basic Income – A Cultural Impulse).
In 2012, Häni and others launched the Swiss popular initiative “For an unconditional basic income.” which made Switzerland the first country to vote on an unconditional basic income. On June 5, 2016, 23.1% voted in favor of the proposal nationwide. The initiative was approved by the Swiss Federal Chancellery.
He is the founder of various other projects in Basel and Switzerland including the cultural space unternehmen mitte.
Zineb Hattab is a Moroccan-Spanish chef and the owner of plant-based restaurant KLE in Zurich, Switzerland. Zineb was selected “discovery of the year” by Gault Millau on her restaurant’s opening year in 2020 and was the first vegan chef in Switzerland to be awarded with a green Michelin star. Software engineer turned vegan chef, Zineb is excited to share the story and passion of food, community, and changing careers.
Graham Bell is a polymath, who has dedicated his life to empowering people to be self-reliant.
He has a Master’s degree in English Language and Linguistics, is a qualified electrical engineer, and is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Marketing and the Royal Society for the Arts Commerce and Manufacturing. He is the current Chair of Permaculture Scotland and the Permaculture Association Britain Education Working Group.
His expertise lies in business management (he has advised over a thousand businesses), forest gardening, food preservation, renewable energy and energy efficiency are particular strengths. Resource management sits behind all these topics. He is the author of two books on Permaculture (The Permaculture Way and the Permaculture Garden) and a very large number of articles. His knowledge of plants and trees is legendary. Having taught from the Arctic Circle down to Middle Eastern deserts and sub Saharan Africa, as well as tropical Australia, his knowledge and experience is adaptable to most situations. He is primarily interested in helping others in confidence and self-reliance with their own work.
His own home garden is a mere 800 sq.metres (0.08 hectares) which produces 1.25 tonnes of food a year peak yield (pro rata 16 tonnes a hectare) 500 trees and 5000 plants for sale, half the household’s energy needs, a soft living room and an amazing teaching space which welcomes (and feeds) a thousand visitors every year from all over the planet (literally) – when not in lockdown.
“I’m sure there are many people out there who are much cleverer than me. What I offer is a certain gateway to an amazing future. Easy to digest, clear and in simple language that everyone can understand. I can’t empower anyone. People can only empower themselves. But what I can do is offer you the space, the knowledge and the insights where this will all become apparent for you. You will leave our meeting with all the direction you need to take your life forward for personal gain and the good of all the planet.”
- Reference
- The Permaculture Way: Practical Steps to Create A Self-Sustaining World, Graham Bell, ISBN 1 85623 028 7. 240pp. (2008)
The Permaculture Garden, Graham Bell , Chelsea Green Publishing (2005).
Philippe Birker is supporting regenerative farmers in Europe in their important work of regenerating our soils through climate farmers and I study and experiment with regenerative culture and regenerative leadership. Before I embarked on the path to regeneration, I have worked for 5 years in business and community development for different impact start ups. Ranging from the sharing economy with Peerby over electronics with Fairphone to software with my last employee Ritual technologies. Since 2009 I am world record holder in simultaneous fire breathing and I am part of Ashoka’s Changemaker community, Viva con Agua and the Love Foundation, an NGO with 500 members worldwide, that I co-founded in 2013.
Tony is an inspirational musician and story-teller. He is palestinian, living in Zurich since many years with his wife and two daughters. Tony’s interest lies in the use of drumming to expand awareness, to connect to oneself and to change.
Elaine France is the Founder of Flow In Action, working with youth, educators, librarians and entrepreneurs to empower them as the new generation of leaders and innovators taking action for the planet. Her activities inspire a journey from imagination to ideas to impact; enabling you to connect to your unique creativity and use it for collaborative problem-solving.
Dani is an artist among the carpenters. One of his talents is to combine sustainability with beauty and functionality. This is deeply reflected in his carpentry workshop which showcases a perfect marriage between interior design, art and wood business.
Heike trained as an architect in South Africa and started working with clay to balance out the many hours spent staring at a screen.
In a world that is becoming increasingly more digital, her focus is the handmade, and the stories these objects often have to tell.
Her teachers have been artisans and masters of old crafts: the carvers of wooden doors in Zanzibar, the baskets makers of Mozambique and Lesotho, the carpet weavers of Morocco. Flamenco dancers and a guitarist in the south of Spain. A silversmith and a print maker in Cape Town, ceramic masters in Denmark, Germany and Switzerland.
Tina is a permaculturist, Eco-artivist and Catalyst. She is passionate about making her life colourful, fun and meaningful and inspiring others to do the same!
In the last 12 years, she has been consistently learning what she would have wanted to learn at school: permaculture, non-violent communication, sociocracy, the Art of hosting, the transition movement and agile learning. With all her aquired skills in various disciplines, she sees it as her ethical responsibility to share it through “Kompostopia: A magical school of the earthly arts.”
Her mission is to train Eco-Artivists, who are creative New Earth Leaders, fluent in communication, collaboration, earth regeneration…and having fun!
She has distilled technical information and fused it with the most primitive tools of social bonding and artistic expression (singing, dancing and playing) to create a unique, holistic formula for guiding the New Earth Leaders along their personal, social, artistic and environmental evolution.
Gal is an architect and mosaic artist. He was born in Israel, living and creating now in Barcelona with his family. Already during his studies in architecture, he was pulled towards the work with materials, especially clay and ceramics.
In his studio in Barcelona he works with ceramic tiles. He breaks them into pieces and creates new images, piece by piece until a complete new creation evolves
David Suivez is a trained Yoga Teacher who’s main interest lies in researching and bridging the gaps between different approaches in movement based forms like Dance, Martial Arts and Bodywork Therapy. He founded Movement Masterclass in 2016 to provide a space where multidisciplinary movement specialists share their research.
www.davidsuivez.com
Precious Plastic Zurich is a project and part of the global community of people concerned with the use and recycling of plastic. We believe that the value of this resource should not be lost at the end of product lives. There are many creative ways to reuse plastic and produce valuable objects.
Naomie is a French artist born in 1991 who spent her childhood in gardens and nature in the north of France before studying psychology and graduating in fine arts (Genit Rietveld Academy in Amsterdam). Naomie is looking for a simpler way to live after spending much time in big cities. She feels attracted to sustainability and community life and likes to see Which?Garden as a school and a playground where she can learn and experiment with gardening while witnessing the beauty of nature everyday. Naomie loves cooking and painting. She also has her own instagram channel (@l.autre.main) and is always happy to meet new people.
Ricardo was born and raised in Mexico. There he studied mechanical engineering, had his first jobs, and travelled the country extensively for work and for personal discovery. In 2014 he moved to Aachen to experience life in Europe and study further, now with focus on sustainable production systems. He is passionate about systemic design for positive impact. Today he works as a mechanical designer with the parallel task of sustainability impacts analysis, and as a hobby he does a bit of organic agriculture and permaculture around Zürich. His other passions are sports, listening to music and hanging out with friends.
Jkson is an Argentinean producer living in Switzerland, who is constantly learning and evolving. His performances contain natural atmospheres, native voices and endless organic textures, accompanied by synthesizers, drum machines and deep basses. Generating eclectic sound journeys going from downtempo to deep techno, with world music influences. He was resident at Minimoog Club (AR), Casa Yungay (CL) and Festival Nomade (CL). Currently, he is resident at Chakana (CH). He has shared stages in the best clubs and festivals of South America, Central America and Europe.
Maureen is engaged in the field of contemporary dance – as a freelance dancer, creator and teacher. She is interested in the body as a playground to meet oneself and others giving space to explore inner landscapes and relate them to the outer world – as a continuum of nature. Maureen wants to explore the fields in between different disciplines creating new connections and building communities.
Since being introduced to permaculture in the early 90s, Helder has learned and worked with recognized permaculturists like the cocreator of permaculture Bill Mollison, and other pioneers of this movement like Geoff Lawton, Doug Bullock, Rosemary Morrow, Darren Doherty and Sepp Holzer, to name a few, and in the major world climatic regions. In this process Helder has been researching & implementing sustainability principles in a wide variety of environments, from urban and rural plots in the north and south of Europe to the the arid landscapes of Egypt & Turkey and lately big scale areas of tropical jungles of Peru and Brazil and favilitated knowledge sharing with tribal communities of Quechua and Shipibo tradition.
Helder is a strong supporter of low-income farmers and focuses his work on the creation of strong social structures to build strong foundations for resilient communities. His niche lies in the creation of harmonious social and natural landscapes that demonstrate a high quality of life and a paradigm shift. He is the founder of New School Permaculture and is very passionate about non-formal education and creative methodologies to deliver knowledge.
Marc is a musician with multidisciplinary interests and skillsets spanning from musical performance, sound design, composition for film and theatre to electronic music production.
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