Vienna – recently I accompanied an eight year old facially paralysed girl during plastic surgery. She had a corrective operation. It was her third surgical intervention within a period of about four years. Everything went well and the girl is already back at home in Switzerland.

Human expression is not only about the moving face. The whole body of a person is involved when s/he expresses her- or himself. During surgery I was wondering of how a part of the hand of the girl – a tendon of her right arm was transplanted into her left mouth corner – suddenly became integrated in her smiling, articulating and talking.
This observation encouraged me to continue my work together with choreographers and movement practitioners within the FEATURES-research with facially paralysed patients and in close collaboration with the plastic and reconstructive surgeon Manfred Frey, who is an expert in this particular medical field: http://www.professor-frey.at/.

Video still: Christina Lammer, 2012