Recent developments in psychology are paying more attention to the idea that memories are not only stored in our brain, but also in our body. People who think they have mentally processed a disruptive event - perhaps a trauma - may still suffer from related physical complaints. Conversely, it may also be the case that physical wounds have long since healed, while your brain remains anxious when perceiving certain signals. When it comes to memories both the mind and the body might be of equal importance.

 

As psychiatrist and psychosocialist Jacob Levi Moreno pointed out:

'The body remembers what the mind forgets.'

 

AFK Away From Keyboard initiates a research in dance and music in which our memories are central. How do memories find their way into our bodies? 

A first trial, for which choreographer Aafke de Jong interviewed an 83-year-old woman born on Java (Indonesia) during World War II, will be performed for the Indisch Herinnerings Centrum (located in Museum Sophiahof) in The Hague on Sunday, May 21, 2023. The program ('Indische Salon') is about the impact of war on the lives of families, individuals and societies. 

Besides giving an ode to this woman's family and background, AFK wants to give more attention to the fact that the psychological as wel as physical effects of war (and other trauma) are being passed on from generation to generation. 

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This project, in which the memories of several people are central (not necessarily all related to trauma and war) will be further developed in the course of 2023 and 2024 under the name 'It Didn't Start With You' (after the quote from Mark Wolynn, a leading expert on inherited family trauma).

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