Professor Kélina Gotman Workshop in Holland Park

To coincide with the publication of Kélina Gotman’s What is a thoughtful life?, this workshop will engage with thinking about how we do the work, the play, the swerving, the climbing around and falling off cliffs’ edges labour of thinking, when everything around calls us to action, to speed. Is thinking slowly an act of resistance of a sort? What does it entail? What histories of thinking about thought might we rest with, rest upon, move through, hang out with for a while?
How do we do thinking as a sort of ‘action of contemplation’ (in Hannah Arendt’s terms), aligned with meditation practices though distinct in ways, and as a practice of living, an arts of life (in the terms of Greco-Roman philosophers and many more in their wake). Participants will be invited to come to the workshop equipped with an image, an object, a practice that always allows them to pause, or sometimes; that gives permission, or so it feels, to take it easy, to step away, or step into whatever it is that they are wrestling with – because this is no easy task, this wrangling with thought as it moves; but it is a necessary and an urgent one also – it will equip us better, more fully, to remain alert, to cut through, to craft another future. - K.G.

Out soon: What is a thoughtful life? MUP, 2026

Manchester University Press - What is a thoughtful life?

Daisy Green has generously provided the space, and refreshments are included in the ticket. Proceeds from ticket sales go directly to the artist.

Kélina Gotman is Professor of Performance and the Humanities at King’s College London. She is author among others of Choreomania: Dance and Disorder, Essays on Theatre and Change: Towards a Poetics Of, co-editor of Foucault’s Theatres and Performance and Translation in a Global Age, editor of the four-volume Theories of Performance: Critical and Primary Sources, and author of the forthcoming What is a thoughtful life? She works widely on questions of health history and philosophy and broader transdisciplinary entanglements, as well as politics and practices of writing and language, dance, and the history of ideas.
She has been guest professor in Philosophy at the Université Toulouse Jean-Jaurès (France), Friedrich Hölderlin Guest Professor in Comparative Dramaturgy at the Goethe University Frankfurt (Germany) and held further visiting and guest positions across the arts and humanities in Chicago, New York, and elsewhere. She has collaborated on numerous theatre, dance and other performance productions internationally across many years, and contributed internationally to museum and festival strategy and programming in dance, the sciences and related fields. She is originally from Montreal.

Photographic artist Alan McFetridge, and founder of the Centre for Ecological Philosophy, continues to explore the roots of connectivity through ritual, movement, and ecological care. In 2026, as part of his residency with Daisy Green at Holland Park Café, he is shaping an evolving program by inviting artists he has encountered through chance, synchronicity, natural rhythm, and psychic channels.
Website: www.alan-mcfetridge.com
Instagram: alan_mcfetridge
CEP:

• Introductions and a chance to connect with others.
• Artist-led workshops
• Reflective journaling and guidance to sharpen your intuitive and creative senses.

Bring your notebook, dress according to the weather, and let’s explore the beauty of Holland Park while deepening your connection with nature and your inner self.

Where: Holland Park Café, Ilchester Place, London W8 6LU

When: 12 PM - 2 PM, Sunday, last Sunday of each month

Cost: £5 -15 (includes a coffee and banana bread). 100% of the proceeds go to Artists.

Spaces are limited—RSVP now on Eventbrite or DM us to secure your spot!

• Duration: The session will last approximately 2 hours, but the conversation afterwards often extends.
• Cancellation Policy: Refunds are available up to 24 hours prior to the event.
• Contact: If you have any questions, feel free to email alan@alan-mcfetridge or call 07799840712
  

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Event Venue & Nearby Stays

Holland Park Cafe by Daisy Green, Ilchester Place, London, United Kingdom

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