In response to Mélanie Cerezo Gobet’s performance T’es bonne !, this mediation day offers body-based practices, discussions, and theoretical contributions on how Southeast Asian bodies, and more broadly immigrant bodies, have been historically domesticated and exploited.
Program
Posters by ASU Collective
Graphic design: Yoann Cosson
Photography and vector illustration, 2023–2026
These posters were created for ASU Collective’s public campaigns and events. Serving both as tools for mobilisation and forms of graphic expression, they help to raise awareness of the struggles against anti-Asian racism in Switzerland.
Inspired by the aesthetic of activist posters, they accompany the meetings, workshops, parties and gatherings organised by the collective. They assert a collective voice and occupy public space to make the voices and experiences of people of Asian descent visible.
Stéréotypes
A film by William Ouy-Lim Do & Sarah Waeber (2026, 4:14)
English/French version, German subtitles
A stereotype is, at its core, a printing technique used to reproduce an image, always the same one, over and over again.
Featuring : Socheata Aing, William Ouy-Lim Do, Congle Fu, Alexandra Jian-Ning Gong, Ken Van
Voices : Wichheca Hin, Alex Thê Duy Trần
Sound design et music : Mitch Gasser
Wrtng : Sarah Waeber
Editing : William Ouy-Lim Do
Images : Sarah Adatte
Technique : Ken Van
Research : Susan La
Support : ASU Collective
Production : Eyeshot
Books and ASU merch !
Based on elements and protocols from the performance T’es bonne !, this workshop invites participants to explore what work does to the body: repetitive gestures, tension, fatigue, wear, availability, but also support, resistance, and impulses. By crossing domestic work with body work, it encourages exploring different qualities of movement linked to effort, care, and constraint. The workshop will be followed by a discussion.
Reserved for domestic workers and people of Asio-descendant backgrounds
Open to all levels
Comfortable clothing recommended
In French and English
Free of charge, upon registration
Artist
Mélanie Cerezo Gobet (she/her) is a Filipino-Swiss artist active in contemporary dance, performance, and artistic research. Her practice explores identity, cultural heritage, and Asio-descendance through movement, bodily presence, and performativity. In parallel, she develops pedagogical and transmission projects, as well as the feminist project Hysteria Room with Jade Albasini. She is a founding member of the ASU collective.
Time for informal exchanges over a snack prepared by ASU
The lecture explores how Southeast Asian bodies have been shaped by logics of domestication and exploitation linked to migration and domestic work, with a focus on the Philippines. Around the world, these bodies are assigned specific roles, rendered invisible, or hypersexualized, and subjected to power dynamics that dictate their place in social space.
What imaginaries surround Southeast Asian bodies? How do stereotypes normalize certain forms of work, proximity, or invisibility?
Drawing on the experiences of Filipino women, this intervention examines the mechanisms of control and hierarchy over immigrant bodies and opens pathways to reclaim and make them visible.
Free of charge, no registration required
Open to all
In French, English printed translation provided
Speaker
Natasha Lek Stegmann (she/her) is a Swiss-Singaporean activist, DJ, artist, and researcher. Her practice sits at the intersection of art, research, and activism, exploring migration, identity, public space, and otherness through queer, feminist, and decolonial perspectives. She develops projects such as Diasporaaaa (since 2023), the workshop Am I Asian Enough (2023, with Mélanie Cerezo Gobet), and the lecture-workshop Returning To Our Roots (2025). (2025). She collaborates with choreographer Mélanie Cerezo Gobet on projects including Mal de mère (2023) and T’es bonne ! (2026) as researcher and dramaturge. She is a founding member of ASU and MILLE SEPT SANS collectives.
The restaurant Les didascalies at Nuithonie offers a variety of meals to enjoy on site.
T’es bonne ! is a creation by Filipino-Swiss choreographer Mélanie Cerezo Gobet that highlights the diasporic experience of female Filipino domestic workers. The piece examines the meaning of sacrifice these women assume for their families, while navigating social expectations, colonial legacies, and contrasting moral norms. Through stories, imaginaries, and legends, including the emblematic figure of Maria Labo, illustrating tensions between motherhood, alienation, and stigma, the piece exposes the violences and pressures endured, while opening a space to rethink the injunction to be a “good mother” and a “good immigrant.”
Let’s enjoy a moment of fun after the show!
Where
Espace Nuithonie, Rue du Centre 7, 1752 Villars-sur-Glâne
Access
Bus 5 (Arrêt Cormanon)
On-site parking
A 25-minute walk from Fribourg station
Language
Workshop : French / English
Lecture : French with written translation in English
Eligbility
Lecture: open to all
Workshop: open to domestic workers and people of Asian descent.
Adoptees and their descendants are warmly welcome.
Program
La conférence explore le regard blanc et la manière dont les normes occidentales construisent des hiérarchies raciales, influençant la visibilité, l’espace occupé et la perception des corps asiatiques en Suisse. Elle examine également comment ces représentations, y compris l’hypersexualisation, la fétichisation et la désérotisation des corps, conditionnent interactions, relations et sentiment d’appartenance, ainsi que leurs impacts psychologiques et corporels. Des outils de réflexion et d’empowerment seront offerts sous forme d’inputs théoriques, d’exemples et de témoignages. Des extraits vidéos et sonores issus de la pop culture illustreront également les échanges.
Ouvert à tout le monde, inscription souhaitée
En français avec traduction simultanée en allemand
L’atelier propose des exercices accessibles de mouvement, d’écoute corporelle et de perception de soi, permettant aux participant·es d’explorer les tensions et adaptations liées au racisme, tout en réinvestissant leur présence corporelle dans un cadre bienveillant et inclusif.
Par Mélanie Cerezo Gobet et Akané Nussbaum
Ouvert aux personnes asio-descendantes, inscription obligatoire
En français et allemand
Prévoir des habits confortables pour bouger
Moment d’échange informel.
Où
L’Atelier, Place de Notre-Dame 16, 1700 Fribourg
Langue
Français avec traduction simultanée en allemand
Admissibilité
Conférence : tout public
Atelier et discussions : réservé aux personnes asio-descendantes, sur inscription Les personnes adopté·es et leurs descendant·es sont chaleureusement bienvenu·es.
Gratuit
Workshop-lecture by Natasha Lek Stegmann
During this workshop–lecture, Natasha Lek Stegmann will present historical facts about eating or not eating meat from a decolonial perspective. She will also speak about identity, loss of identity, and most importantly, reconnection with one’s identity. The lecture will weave together historical, scientific and personal perspectives. Following the lecture, Natasha will facilitate a workshop inviting participants to question their relationship to eating meat, to their identity, and to their own contradictions.
Natasha Lek Stegmann (she/her) is an activist, musician, DJ, artist, and researcher with Swiss and Singaporean roots. Working between art, research, and activism, she draws on a background in social sciences, with studies in ethnology and human geography, to explore inclusion and exclusion, public space, migration, and otherness. Her perspective is informed by queer, feminist and decolonial thought, while striving to remain grounded, accessible and collaborative.
Her current projects include Diasporaaaa (since 2023), a multifaceted exploration of migration and identity featuring a podcast on Transition Radio. She created the workshop “Am I Asian Enough?” (2023) and Returning to Our Roots: A Decolonial Reflection on Plant-Based Living (2025), both addressing Asianity, belonging, and decolonial perspectives. Natasha also collaborates as a researcher and dramaturg with choreographer Mélanie Cerezo Gobet (Mal de Mère (2023) ; T’es bonne (2026)) and plays an active role in collective and associative work as a founding committee member of ASU and co-founder of MILLE SEPT SANS since 2015.
Workshop By HE Shen 何珅
The contemporary identity of tofu is multifaceted: it is both a racialized and queer agent, and a material that traverses histories, from its Taoist alchemical origins to Caséo-Sojaïne, the Parisian tofu factory that helped disseminate anarchist ideas to China. In this tofu workshop, we will engage these intertwined threads by making tofu collectively, cultivating solidarity, and opening space for creative experimentation. We will explore the political potential of collective tofu-making as a practice imbued with subversive resilience, pleasure, and mutual care. Together, we will reclaim tofu-making as a site of decolonial queer resistance.
He Shen 何珅 (they/them) is a spatial practitioner from Sichuan, currently teaching and researching at the Chair of Architecture and Care, ETH Zürich. Their work bridges architecture with queer and decolonial studies, exploring intersections of race, gender and sexuality with space. Shen is currently focused on food narratives, particularly tofu, tea, and rice, to unearth and radicalise forms of Asian queer resistance across national and continental borders yet often silenced or overlooked.Shen is a recipient of the City of Zürich Art Grant 2025, and a member of the Asian Future Collective. They previously taught at the Zürich University of the Arts and have presented theirwork widely, including the Architecture Foundation in London, the Nieuwe Instituut in Amsterdam, EPF Lausanne, Kunsthalle Bern, and Kunsthalle Zürich.
Community supper by Cho-Yu Wu
To close the day, chef Cho-Yu Wu invites participants to share a moment of care and conviviality around food. This will not be a participatory dinner in the formal sense, but rather a relaxed space of cook & talk, aka an informal moment to chat, taste and be together near the kitchen. Those who wish are welcome to lend a hand, stay around and join the conversation. This Community Supper resonates with the day’s reflection on food, identity and decolonial perspectives : a moment to connect, eat, and continue the conversation around nourishment in all its forms.
Cho-Yu Wu (she/her) is a Hongkie-born Swiss chef. Growing up in an immigrant family, food was always a central topic, a way to survive, but also a way to thrive and stay connected to one’s roots. She began cooking at an early age, helping while her parents were at work, and later discovered the demanding life of a restaurant owner’s child. Over the past ten years, she has cooked for people from all walks of life, including in international competitions. Her cuisine is a patchwork, blending the rural traditions of Chinese walled villages with elements of European fine dining, always guided by a sense of concept, taste, and emotion. Whether flexitarian, plant-based, or based on transformed textures, her dishes tell stories of migration, resilience and belonging.
Où
L’Atelier, Place de Notre-Dame 16, 1700 Fribourg
Langue
Français avec traduction simultanée en allemand
Admissibilité
Conférence : tout public
Atelier et discussions : réservé aux personnes asio-descendantes, sur inscription Les personnes adopté·es et leurs descendant·es sont chaleureusement bienvenu·es.
Gratuit
Nel contesto della Settimana di azione contro il razzismo (SACR) e in collaborazione con Info-Razzismo Friburgo, il collettivo ASU propone due eventi :
11:00 – 12:00 Conferenza: “Razzismo anti-asiatico: radici storiche e realtà contemporanee elvetiche”
13h30 – 16h00
Laboratori e discussioni: “Am I Asian enough?”
Gratuito, iscrizione consigliata tramite il modulo sottostante.
Snack e bevande disponibili, ma non è previsto un pranzo. Ristoranti nelle vicinanze.
In occasione della Settimana contro il razzismo in Ticino, il collettivo ASU collabora insieme a Dialogue en Route una giornata di sensibilizzazione sul tema del razzismo, collegando il tema scelto per questa edizione della SCR, ovvero “le parole”, al ruolo dei media nella diffusione di discorsi razzisti.
L’evento si svolgerà attraverso un formato dinamico di World Café, in cui si affronteranno tre tematiche diverse legate al razzismo, ciascuna trattata da un’associazione diversa.
Il collettivo ASU sarà responsabile dell’animazione del workshop ‘All you can eat’ di stereotipi: quando i media servono pregiudizi a volontà’, focalizzato sul razzismo anti-asiatico, in particolare sulla sinofobia
Durante il nostro workshop, esamineremo insieme un esempio concreto: un servizio trasmesso dalla televisione svizzera italiana sui ristoranti “all you can eat” in Italia, che sono spesso frequentati dalla clientela ticinese, ma che vengono raccontati in modo sensazionalista.
I partecipanti avranno l’opportunità di decostruire questo contenuto, riflettendo su come le parole e le immagini scelte possano rafforzare una visione distorta della realtà e alimentare la discriminazione.
Bias in prima pagina – Media e (anti)razzismo
15h15 – 17h00
World Café con tre workshop tematici
17h30 – 19h00
Tavola rotonda con esperti.e sul tema della comunicazione e del linguaggio nei media
Gratuito, con iscrizione tramite questo modulo.
