On 1 July, the artist Raquel Meseguer Zafe was a guest at our ‘Listen & Lunch’ series to discuss ‘Absent presence & quiet threads: crip callings’ with our artistic collaborator Nadja Dias.

In this conversation, artist Raquel reflects on the development of her artistic practice, tracing key projects, methodologies, and questions that have shaped her work. The discussion explores participatory and co-design approaches, drawing on works such as Cloudspotting and Proper Time, and examining how these projects engage with experiences of presence, absence, and connection across distance. Raquel discusses the role of creative technologies in fostering collaboration and forms of “absent presence,” considering both realized and evolving artistic experiments. The conversation also addresses ongoing research initiatives, including Crip Proverbs and Rewriting Spaces, as well as emerging practices that investigate embodied forms of knowledge through language, movement, and performance scores.

The discussion was recorded. The recording, along with German and English transcripts, can be made available on request to students, lecturers, staff and researchers working on this topic. If this applies to you, please contact einstein_shk[at]hzt-berlin.de.

About Raquel Meseguer Zafe:

Raquel’s work straddles theatre, dance, installation, performative conversations and photo-documentary. In 2016 she founded Unchartered Collective to create theatrical encounters that explore the lived experience of disability. Her project A Crash Course in Cloudspotting is an installation & performance, an app, and a digital archive. She is currently in the R&D phase of a new work entitled  Proper Time. 

Raquel was a founding member of Lost Dog Dance and was Associate Artist on Paradise Lost (lies unopened beside me) and Juliet + Romeo. In 2023 she was nominated for an Olivier Award for her Dramaturgy on Lost Dog’s Ruination. Raquel was movement director on Rachel Bagshaw’s The Shape of the Pain and Amy Hodge’s Mother Courage. Raquel was Co-Artistic Director of Candoco Dance from January 2024 - July 2025. Raquel was also part of the Gathering „On Crip Technique, Knowledge and Expertise“ by the Crip | Choroe | Care Team at HZT Berlin 2025 showing the performance lecture „A World to Exist in for a Day“ together with Jamie McCarthy.