Briefschmerz: Addressing Procrastination Through BDSM

Workshop - 18+ and older.

Briefschmerz is a playful, performative workshop that approaches procrastination through consent-based sub-dom role-play. Open that tax office letter, or else...

Participants are invited to bring concrete tasks they've been avoiding — an unanswered email, a delayed decision, an unpaid bill, an awkward phone call — and work through them within a structured, performative setting. The workshop functions as a temporary co-working performance, a space where everyday responsibilities meet somatic practice, humour, and power dynamics.

Developed in the context of freelance and gig-based working realities, Briefschmerz addresses the often invisible pressure of multitasking, self-management, and unfinished mental load. It expands and hacks tools from performance and somatics to engage directly with the tasks that occupy unpleasant mind space, not by optimizing productivity but by shifting how we relate to them. Rooted in consent, care, and mutual agreement, participants take turns embodying the roles of "sub" (task owner) and "dom" (task facilitator), exploring giving and receiving, resistance and motivation, control and support. Tasks become durational, shared actions — sometimes precise, sometimes absurd — allowing space to reflect on how we perform productivity, and how we might do it differently.

Briefschmerz treats procrastination not as a problem to fix but as material to work with. What if avoidance became a stage? What if discipline could be playful, relational, even caring? The workshop creates a cozy, non-intimidating space where participants can experiment, take risks, and maybe finally send that email.

"Briefschmerz" (Urban Dictionary): A feeling of intense anxiety and/or psychological distress. Literally "letter pain." Named after the feeling anyone residing in Germany gets after seeing they have letters in their postbox. To be used literally or metaphorically.

About the facilitators
Frida Giulia Franceschini (IG: @frigiulka) – Frida Giulia Franceschini is a Berlin-based performer, choreographer, intimacy coordinator, and workshop facilitator. She is co-founder of PHANTA, an artistic duo exploring spectacle and gaze politics through physical storytelling, music, and tragicomedy. Her practice moves between artistic experimentation, somatic research, and the exploration of power dynamics, consent, and play. Alongside her artistic work, Frida facilitates workshops that bring embodied practices, humour, and alternative approaches to learning into dialogue. She is also co-founder of MINT – Intimacy Coordination & Choreography (IG: @mint_berlin), working across film, theatre, and live performance.

Simo Vassinen (IG: @simovassinen) – Simo Vassinen works between Helsinki and Berlin as a movement artist and somatic facilitator. Drawing on contemporary dance, rave culture, psychoanalysis, bodywork, and queer underground lineages, his practice explores the intersections of embodiment, pleasure, power dynamics, and social imagination. His work unfolds through workshops, performances, and interventions, combining somatic curiosity, deep listening, vitality activation, and precise absurdity. He has presented work at Sophiensaele, Uferstudios, Radialsystem, Kiasma Museum, and ImPulsTanz, among others. Since 2015, he has collaborated with Frida Giulia Franceschini, developing experimental formats that bring play, consent, and performativity into everyday life.