You are warmly invited to Wear Me Out, a lecture-performance by Ari David that explores how exhaustion shapes our lives today.

Wear Me Out delves into the often-invisible rhythms of exhaustion, how it creeps in, settles in our bodies, and becomes part of how we live. The performance refuses productivity in its usual, linear sense. Instead, it assembles a broken chorus of voices, gestures, and testimonies that speak to the lived politics of exhaustion.

Developed over a year-long process of research and dialogue, the performance draws from conversations with cultural and art workers, personal narratives, and a mix of written and digital materials. Designed to evolve over time, Wear Me Out grows with new testimonies and ongoing reflection, allowing it to remain responsive and open-ended. 

The work asks: How is exhaustion produced and shared? It traces this question across freelance economies, the experience economy, art institutions, and the invisible labour that sustains them. Wear Me Out reflects on the cost of ongoing extraction, from our bodies, our attention, and the planet, and on the quiet, complicated ties that link our shared experiences.

Ari David, born in Romania, is currently based in Rotterdam. In their work Ari explores how the social is inscribed in the body, focusing on themes of collectivity and dissent. Their interdisciplinary work includes writing, video, sound, textiles, and performance, emphasising small gestures and the choreographies of everyday life to reflect on how bodies are shaped in Western society. Their works have been shown at WET Rotterdam, Available and the Rat, Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, De Appel, Charlotte Street Foundation, National Museum of Contemporary Art Bucharest, Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art Rijeka, Salonul de Proiecte, tranzit.ro/ Cluj.  www.aridavid.net

Supported by CBK Rotterdam (Centre for Visual Arts Rotterdam) @cbkrotterdam