Ode to Care

Ode to Care is looking into “caring for” as an intimate, personal and political act, hidden in simple tasks, difficult to measure, often invisible. The performers will be asked to receive a care treatment, or provide one, which usually happens privately at home. This time this action will be made public. Actions will be such as: being fed, having part of your body being washed, being lifted, having your nails being cut, being dressed etc.

Ode to Care is part of the research project 'Who Cares?', a quest to understand what care is in our contemporary society. Rather than try to address this question from a theoretical level, MOHA dived into various professions and situations that deal with care: they worked with street cleaners, housekeeping staff of a care home, social workers, nurses and residents of an apartment complex on the edge of a city.

Ode to Careis the outcome of a year long collaboration with a a group of district nurses based in Moabit, Berlin. MOHA attended their team meetings, accompanied the workers for a walk from their homes to the houses of their clients and discussed their motivation and choices to become care workers. During the repetition of these walks and talks some rules, tricks, tips, cracks, boundaries, stories and care routines were revealed.