Georgia Sagri’s IASI Practice: Healing as Political Resistance at Kunsthalle Friart

Georgia Sagri’s exhibition ‘Case_L’ at Kunsthalle Friart (Fribourg, Switzerland, 10 June–31 July 2022) presents her IASI (recovery) practice as a multi-mode anthology including paintings, drawings, sculpture, live performance, and a parallel film programme. Unlike previous one-to-one somatic therapy sessions at Mimosa House (2020) or her participation in ‘YOYI! Care, Repair, Heal’ at Gropius Bau (2022), this exhibition synthesizes IASI into a conceptual framework and aesthetics termed ‘education of the senses.’ Central works include Shelter_Refuge (2022), a day-long performance with woven water hyacinth shelters, and large drawings from IASI sessions with a person experiencing acute panic attacks (Case_L). Sagri’s approach integrates breath, voice, and movement to address psycho-physical harm and political resistance, emphasizing process over spectacle. The body is conceived as a condenser of social and structural forces, aligning with Walter Benjamin’s ‘destructive character’ and ‘spiritual anarchism.’ The exhibition also features six egg tempera paintings depicting a landscape imaginary of the body, positioned according to the sun’s movement. Sagri’s practice challenges institutional care discourses by framing recovery as ongoing refusal and unreconciliation with capitalist survival.