October 13 @ 1:30 pm - 5:00 pm
Museum of Contemporary Art
Toronto, ON
Niki Landau, both a theatre artist and alternative dispute resolution practitioner, spent the day facilitating conversations around disagreement through a series of exercises that helped build useful skills such as self-awareness, listening, compassion, and mutual understanding as a part of Justin and I’s exhibition Rehearing Disagreement.
During the workshop, we learned the different types of disagreement, how to disagree in more useful ways, and what style of arguing each one of our personalities coincided with.
Rehearsing Disagreement
Hiba Abdallah and Justin Langlois’s Rehearsing Disagreement is the first project in MOCA’s Art in Use series on MOCA’s Floor 4. The project is comprised of four participatory works that explore disagreement and conflict through the lens of art and within the structure of the museum. Inviting visitors to share their lived experiences, the artists present the argument that co-existing in difference is a generative part of our civic responsibility.
As an extension to their project, a weekend program features participatory activities, talks, and workshops that frame the question: how does disagreement play a useful role in our everyday? By identifying the positive effects of differences, participants can develop the skill of agreeing to disagree.
Niki Landau is a mediator, actor, playwright, and theatre producer. She teaches theatre arts at York University and Seneca College, and is a Mediation and Communication Skills trainer who has worked with many individuals, families and organizations to help improve skills, relationships and group dynamics. She cofounded Theatre PANIK in 2005 and has taken part in the grassroots peacemaking initiative The Compassionate Listening Project.