RESIDENCY: School of Rest with Myriam Meret

From the autumn of 2020 through till 2024, WORM Pirate Bay will work with artists over a long term period, to explore the topics and ideas that they are curious about. These residencies give audiences the opportunity to meet and engage with artists while they are researching, and to make the process of art production less intimidating. The first resident was Myriam Meret, who managed to negotiate a path through the COVID-19-hit autumn of 2020 with the School of Rest (research residency).

Myriam Meret
“My name is Myriam Meret, I am originally from France, an artist, dancer and Yoga instructor. I keep making bridges between mediums and domains that I think are helping us overcome limitations and come into a place of honesty and share. Where we peel layers of conditioning to question what is relevant to us individually and collectively. The collective experience is currently one favoured focus, and I get there through the modalities, qualities and uses of REST, something that strangely is so personal but reveals the best the state of our collective situation. I am sensitive to what brings humans to experience and detaches us from the addiction to working or filling their heads with borrowed or imposed thoughts and patterns. Rest is, to me, the most powerful manifestation of that something that takes us back to source and essence.”
Myriam is also a force to be reckoned with within the voguing community, she also gives sensuality workshops for people to find their inner sensual power.

“Facing the responsibility of being a human now is already a big load of internal, mental and emotional work in itself. This feeling constantly needs to be suppressed, so we can remain a ‘functional’ member of this (on the edge to mutation) society. And, from suppression, arises tension. During this residency I would like to build principles, documents and practices that will enable us to learn how we – with our own personal history, our own constitution, the energy amounts and qualities that our own life-activities require – need to rest. Rest is an invitation to work on re-enabling ourselves, into developing our internal power, make us aware of it, so we can find access to justice, good quality of life authentic connection and happiness.

School of Rest timeline
06 October | Nidra Diner'(S/ash Gallery)  – Plant-based dinner and moderated discussion around rest.
13 October | Self Destructing Book Club: Rest pt II – Myriam Meret led a collective knowledge gathering. Attendees brought a different text (from a book, Instagram post, zine, article, etc.) that connects to the topic of rest.
21 October | School of Rest Workshop was postponed due to Covid regulations.
28 October | Final Presentation of Research on Rest
30 October | A collective rest experience on ZOOM.