Tete-a-Tete Online is a participatory performance, an online video meeting, during which 1-3 participants and 2 performers converse through drawing on themselves, in silence using their own skin as a medium for a wordless conversation.

There is only one rule — no words. The tool for drawing is a cosmetic pencil. The participants are from 18 years old from any location of the world with access to internet.

Here besides responding to a visual, people are invited to connect deeper to their own sensations, emotions and to let go of overthinking, and from this base form connections to others. In so doing, the new modes of language based on intuition, silence, imagination, sensitivity and inclusivity are being explored.

Let’s connect beyond our identity, language and cultural stereotypes in the conversation through drawing on our own skin .

Let’s Tete-a-Tete.
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Tete-a-Tete conversation starts from the hand.

“I loved the fact that everything happened nonverbally this really gave the full attention to the body. Being forced to draw on myself I’ve became mindful of this new canvas and had to be fully aware of its presence in the act of our digital communication.” — Ewa Key

A few days later I saw three pictures from Tete-a-Tete and it amazed me. It amazed me how all that was still communicated perfectly clear. No words spoken but there it was. I felt love for the me... I learned that I can trust me being anyway with people, that it has a certain beauty and strength, to show your true colours to others, to yourself.

Mattie van der Worm : "Tete-a-Tete gives some food for thought as to how this ‘conversation’ developed influencing each other.

Your creativity has contributed to the fact that I experience digital communication with each other as just too distant. To think of it is one thing, to offer it is another. Appreciate.

Well, I hope you also enjoyed this ‘wonderfully out of control big people's children's party'. Tête-à-Tête way of communicating. - Inviting to do it again. I mean that in silence and then harnessing the power of mimesis. Thanks Dorota and Yulia, for this unexpected experience" - Mattie

Amanda Meijerink: “It was such a pleasure and honor to participate in Tete-a-Tete! In a few words: intruiging, liberating and exciting. It was fascinating to feel so connected without using one word. Becoming more confident with the process it felt quite liberating to 'make-up' my skin without the need of it to be 'beautiful', or 'correct'. Just free to express myself with drawing on my body.”

Jeroen: “For me the experience was both creative and somehow it felt like an intimate conversation.

Not sexual. Sensual .. physical

Like we were all dancing very intimately with feeling of the the strokes on our skin. But also dancing with eachother.”

Dorota Dabrowska: “Just after the experience I had to rush to a meeting in a completely different setting, and had kind of forgotten about the whole thing. However, during that same meeting, I found my body and hands (unconsciously, until I caught them) looking for the positions they were ‘conversing’ in just a few hours earlier. I couldn’t help but smile about this. I was pleasantly surprised that my body remembered these movements and gestures, even when reenacted totally out of context. It was nice to converse in alternative ways and not be bound to learned patterns of movement. During our conversation we invented little rules and games on our own. I really liked that. I found it interesting to not see myself and what I had 'conversed' on my face and body during the whole performance. “

Renske Mennen: “It was a great experience to be in ’touch’ via Zoom, without saying a word. The most interesting to me was experience something different, I never draw with a colour pencil on different parts of my body. It’s nice to experience something different these days, especially because many days look the same because of the lockdown. It’s very nice to communicate only with pencils.”

Martijn Buijs: “Clearly, I loved doing it, especially when everyone is trying to be creative and add something new or to provoke each other. Also interesting in this regard is the question what does and does not belong to the area you draw on - do I put my foot on the table? do I open my shirt? What else would be fun? But also: how can I keep some sort of stylistic consistency going? Or is that childish and should I just go with the flow? All in all I had a wonderful time.”

“It was an interesting experience, especially the way in which touching your own skin by drawing, without seeing yourself at the same time,

quickly eradicates social obstacles or anxieties connected with meeting new people. I think one of the big distractions in video calling is the fact

that you can see yourself, which contradicts the feeling of a real conversation in which you cannot. As someone who's primary

artistic love is language, meeting in silence, or rather meeting only through bodily expression, felt strange and difficult at first, but

quickly grew on me, even though I still wrote a lot on my skin too, language creeping in I think.

Thanks again for a beautiful experience!” Daniel Vis

“ I'm often plagued, in all kinds of circumstances, by the fear that I'm doing things "the wrong way," and in this case, where verbal guidance was intentionally lacking, that fear was acute in the beginning−even with the knowledge that this was an art project! It was, I confess, only in a second moment that I grasped the communicative purpose of the drawing. The realization made me feel elated, almost giddy. The rest of the time flew by as I responded to what I saw and as we all pushed each other to cover more of ourselves in artwork. I had particular fun manipulating the cosmetic pencil on my skin with my fingers once I'd already applied it, much like I do normally with makeup.” — Elvira

It is interesting to remember it through body memory. Later in the evening i had flashbacks from our conversation within my body as i had experienced some kind of tactile ritual. This inspired me a lot as I’m also researching how one sense can translate into another. Dissolving Boundaries. And how words can take away the meaning and essence, but intuitive and not so defined expression through body can be more honest, open, truthful.
This process felt intimate and open, close and super intuitive, even through digital platform. I thought about what is ‘space’, ‘distance’, ‘whole’, ‘separated’, ‘public/private’ in digital livestream?
Taking away the Self Observation camera is a great tool for closer connection and more honest conversation and makes me feel more me, more real being and technologies as a tool of Connection rather than transition from homo sapiens into digi sapiens cyborg as I sometimes feel especially since lockdown.
— Emilia Melodia

Julia Ploum: “Sunday night – I liked it a lot! Especially the quietness & connection, it was quite special. “

Gluklya:
THANK YOU SO MUCH !

IT WAS AMASING !

LOVE YOU !

Rens: "Intimate communication with strangers through drawings is a whole new and very engaging experience! I liked the different rhythms that developed between the fellow participants, myself and our drawings. This beats another night of Netflix for 100%.”

Eva Couve’: “Even with strangers (who became no more strangers at the end of the hour) , I didn’t feel awkward by trying to discover more about my own proprioception and communicate only by visual medium.”

Thank you girls, it’s more effective and affordable than psychotherapy.

"Yesterday was a way to reconnect with old friends and new without the confines of language. Right now the world feels full of noise, but to be with and create collectively with spontaneous scribbles and lines was more powerful and reassuring than numerous theater pieces/films and I've binged on these few months.”—Jennifer Carss

"The energy was so positive, the faces (of participants) for me - special and I love it. Truly. That 1h made me feel good and happy somehow the day later- hard to wash the black lines but was fun I left one on the hand for 2 day as a nice memory, believe me or not. All that was happening made me feel good all day and the day after... I was recharged and for me was amazing as experience" - Kate Binovska

“In an important sense, in a breathtakingly intimate sense, touching, sensing, is what matter does, or rather, what matter is: matter is condensations of response-ability. Touching is a matter of response. Each of “us” is constituted in response-ability. Each of “us” is constituted as responsible for the other, as being in touch with the other.” — Karen Barad

“My favorite part was actually after the pencil ran out. Sorry I didn't have sharpener. It was a really lovely experience. I started out thinking oh no, how am I going to make it through this hour, and by the end of it, I really loved it. Very moving and touching -- and much needed at this time. Thank you.”— Julia

“This is the second time I participate in the project and I get such pleasure and joy from everything that happens. Time flies by in a flash! It is tantamount to happiness when you forget about everything! And when you paint you feel pleasure from your imagination. Thank you !!!” — Alexandra

“It was a real pleasure to be a part of your perfornance. A unique experience. weird in a good sense a new form of expressivity as communication. Thank you!” Gilad Ratman

“I’ve participated in several of these. They’re beautiful bonkers, kinetic, connective, and somehow introspective all at the same time. What better way to endure lockdown then drawing all over your own skin in the virtual company of strangers? About as close to a 1960s groovy art happening as you’ll ever get behind the laptop.”—Chris

“My tryouts to pretend that it's possible to conduct a normal conversation in zoom as before, brings only sufferings. I managed to talk with friends only once through zoom. There is no strength for such things. But in silence It is cool." Max

“A tender and deep art experience which somehow reminded me of yoga in terms of self-consciousness: I found myself being focused but relaxed at the same time and not distracted by any extraneous thoughts that bothered me before tete-a-tete meeting. It was a pleasure to do something without rationalizing, just staying in the moment and observing my emotions. I must add this is also a great idea to meet new people as in the end of this almost psychological session it felt like I’ve already known everyone for a while.”
Ronia

“I will tell you about my emotions step by step:

1. oh, I don’t want to draw on myself

2. oh, cool (rolls a feeling of freedom)

3. oh shit turns out, it was possible to draw all the tattoos of a dream

4. so, draw-draw-draw, in a sense we push the boundaries, moving from palm to hand,... each time a feeling of a broken barrier - at first you don’t feel like it, then a feeling of freedom and relief

5. so .. the place where to draw ended. What to do

6. why did I sit down to do this in white jeans)))

7. it's over, a pleasant feeling after

"It was a very interesting experience. Emancipation is complete for me. It was interesting to know what the limit would be in this practice. It was your approach that really helped me, I felt safe and was able to relax. I liked the fact that we did not communicate with voices, but only in gestures and drawings. “ Lilit

"It's hard to split this experience into separate parts. It's a very unconscious experience - without being able to talk or see yourself, you have no choice but let go of control - and let the intuition flow" Alex

"It was a sensual experience with no visual aspect to it. I had no thought about my line. It felt wrong to see these images of myself afterwards because it would have spoiled my memory of what it was for me as it was not visual. For me it was not drawing it was an exaggeration of everyday actions. In any silence when there is an action, it is stronger that's how I see it." Kate

“That was so great, my day was quite busy and for an hour I completely disconnected and managed to empty my brain, so much appreciated 😊" - Stathis

“You have an interesting approach toward the more traditional ways of showing art, yours is more an interactive art experience where the viewer is as much the creator of the artwork as you.

- I found it very interesting that you replaced speech dialogue with a visual dialogue during the digital performance. I think the work addressed 'communication' a lot: digital communication; communication between strangers; but also communication with the self and the body.

- As a participant I was looking at what you were doing for guidance, while also being able to make my own decisions; the experience was an interesting balance between following and leading.

- I wondered in what ways it really felt like being 'together' even though it was a digital meeting, and I think it might be because we were all engaged in the same physical activity.

- My body becoming a drawing pad opened up new ways of thinking about the possibilities of a body, and shared bodily experience, especially in the context of being online rather than together in a physical space.

- I felt privileged to take part in this experimental “pause” of my daily life.” — Julia

"I really enjoyed it as always!! Its just a moment of escaping into word free gatherings and only beauty can occur from it. One thing for sure I kept all the drawings on my skin" - Anastasia

"The idea is very good, I liked it👍 and it has a lot of intimacy, I immediately want to participate in this without clothes. Hands and faces seem that little. Clothing in general is very fettling, and you seem to just want to go beyond the framework of public rules." - Ilusha

“I so much relate silence with healing, so while we were communicating in silence my mind was healing. But at the same time using your body as a communication surface, is teaching you how to be social in ”hush”. Each line we were drawing could be followed by our eyes yet it was an invisible connection to each participant's mind, which can be visible when it's outflow by your facial expressions such as a ”smile”. So it was so nice to see you guys smiling :) and thank you for healing and making me smile without a word." - Su Safak Barikan

“To me Tet-a-tete was a very special experience of getting connected to people without words, touch or sound. To my surprise it was also a self-discovery experience. Drawing on my skin without being able to see my own reflection, on one hand made me aware of my discomforts but also in a way helped me to let go of them." Klaudia

“I am so used to talking and communicating differently that this was really something new. Throughout the experience I thought that this is it - this is how it works, this is how we supposed to communicate with each other/ know each other. Some people are more easy-going and open/self-confident some are a bit shy and depending on that they may either became leaders or just follow others but that’s were the exchange and interaction happens. Not being able to see yourself makes it so much better as you have to concentrate on others, on their movements/ body language/ facial expressions and you need to trust yourself. It’s also quite a lot of body coordination it’s not always easy to draw on yourself without seeing yourself. I think that In today’s world where we live in the constant noise - everyone should take time to be part of such an experience. 1 hour silence is almost therapeutical!!! This is one hour of “You” time with ppl who don’t know you and that’s the beauty of it. I felt lighter, happier ( had a lot of fun:)) , I forgot about all the matters of the day and learned that we should stop sometimes, let ourself get out of the box, be more attentive to nonverbal signs. Understand that silence is powerful and means more then words sometimes! Great experience!" Ola

“Tete-a-Tete was an unconventional yet never uncomfortable experience; connecting without words but with a pencil, in a friendly and open setting. It was not strange for me to draw on my body; I remember several childhood pictures where I am covered with pencils or markers or lipstick. It felt like going back in time. Since you don't see yourself, you are more focused on others -and your interaction with others- and less self-aware. Speaking would have only been an extra distraction, it was nice to be in silence. I also had no need to speak afterwards but it was nice that we got the possibility" - Paulien

"Tête-a-Tête is a good tool to turn off the brain. Also it’s cool to watch how the geometry of the body changes when you cover it with a pattern."- Svetlana