Paweł Świerczek

During my stay at Saari, I will dig into performative and somatic research exploring stimming as an embodied language. My aim is to create stimming vocabulary and tools for teaching and sharing this language with others.

Stimming is a neurodivergent practice of repeating sounds or movements. In the past it was perceived as unhealthy antisocial behavior: as kids were forced to unlearn it. For a few years now the views on stimming are changing. We know that stimming is important for the wellbeing of neurodivergent humans – it helps to regulate emotions and process sensory input. But there is still no consensus about what stimming really is. One of those new perspectives sees stimming as a language – way of connecting and communicating with human and nonhuman entities. It is a language that many neurodivergent adults lost through the process of socialising to neuronormative culture.

With my research, I want to rediscover this language, describe it and develop some tools to share it with others. I am interested in the dynamics of what I call “stimming in” and “stimming out” – a process of receiving and giving, listening and speaking – which can be both conscious and involuntary, like breathing.

Paweł Świerczek is performer, translator and (neuro)queer activist, working in relational field. Through their artistic practice they explore the relationships between embodied experiences and identity politics with its necessities and limitations. Their main artistic tools are words, embodied communication, somatic movement and burlesque. 

In 2018 Paweł established the interdisciplinary project and collective Śląsk Przegięty (Queer Silesia), which aims at narrating and performing queer archives from Upper Silesia and growing and supporting the queer community in the city of Katowice. Paweł (co)created several performance pieces based on Silesian queer archives (“Of Coal and Rainbow”, “From Ahead Our Time”, ”The Q Files”). 

For a few years now, Paweł has also been developing his own practice around vulnerability as a tool for peace through performances (“I Am”; “Citrus Paradisi”; “I Want the World to Be Full of Fluffy Duckies”), giving workshops and facilitating open labs. This practice led to an ongoing research around social immune systems. Since 2023, Paweł practices and teaches a communication method called Authentic Relating.