An incomplete list of all the attempts we have made to (finally) fill the void within us

hellobetter.de recommends mindfulness, new experiences and therapy to combat inner emptiness. If the article has given you food for thought, you can give it a thumbs up. Breathing exercises can also help sometimes. We can say: we have done much more! Much, much more! We have bought, creamed, cleaned, fucked and argued. And we give it two thumbs down. We want to (finally) unlearn understanding emptiness as something that needs to be filled.

This way of thinking about filling and emptiness is patriarchal and it makes us tired and exhausted. We lack nothing, except a few basic things. Not understanding emptiness as something that must or can be filled: the hole you carry inside you does not need to be ‘stuffed’, there is no lack of romantic love.

The gaps arise and grow from ever new seeds of the system. An eternal hole. A gap: being single, not yet beautiful enough, not yet successful, no money, no fun. We need: to be athletic, popular and loved, pistachio croissants and lots of me-time. This constructed gap manifests itself as a feeling of lack. As an inflammation that gradually spreads. As a hole in the stomach. As depression. And we are still trying to fill these holes.

We want to say goodbye to filling and look back lovingly on all our failed attempts, realising that these are not our holes, that the lack is not one that can be solved, that it is the system that is sick and not us. We want to queer our own thought patterns and give up giving up on ourselves – the idea of a flaw, track down our own strategies of ‘filling’ and at the same time begin to accept the emptiness. Because it is part of the wounding caused by a capitalist-patriarchal system. And we want to do this together, with gracious humour towards a vulnerable and wounded self.

In our one-day intermission at the thealit studio, we want to talk with participants about these (imagined and felt gaps), explore strategies of ‘filling’ and ‘plugging,’ and compile an incomplete, eternal list of these strategies. So that we can make different decisions in the future and be mindful of these dynamics.

In a lecture performance, we invite visitors to expand this list with their own strategies from their everyday work, relationships and society. Even after the event, this list can be added to online and theoretically continued indefinitely.