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notes
Rebecca Solnittext nnnnyyuvytytytr
Frederic Nietsche
* Richard Long
In the nature of things: Art about mobility, lightness and freedom. Simple creative acts of walking and marking about place, locality, time, distance and measurement. Works using raw materials and my human scale in the reality of landscapes.
The music of stones, paths of shared footmarks, sleeping by the river's roar.
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assignment: from the exotics— to the everyday surrounding , read text together….Embodied research in emergent Antropoceen landscapes. a walk as inspiration for a work or as a work itself…
walk step, moonwalk in between exercise: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v-yX0GIi5s0 and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v-yX0GIi5s0
Francis Alÿs, strolls with critical thinking through world cities. so he enters a rich state of consciousness. which yields surprising videos. Francis Alÿs is known for using poetic and metaphorical techniques to highlight the political and social realities of his city. Often, the issues he addresses range from national border politics to globalism and areas of conflict in his community and the effects of modernism. Francis Alÿs – Paradox of Praxis I (Sometimes Making Something Leads to Nothing), Mexico City, 1997 The Paradox of Praxis 1 is a four-minute, fifty-nine seconds long video that features the artist as the primary subject. In the video, Francis Alÿs is seen pushing a massive block of ice around the city of Mexico until it melts into nothing. In total, Alÿs pushed the block of ice for 9 hours before it melted. However, the final copy of the video was edited and condensed to just a few minutes. The video features sights, sounds, as well as streets and storefronts of the city in the background. The final scene of the video also features a group of 3 young boys that smile up at the camera as the video comes to a close.
Though considered an absurd use of one’s effort and time, the act of pushing the block of ice around the city center was created by Alÿs to examine day to day life in Mexico city. As the video continues to progress, the audience is confronted with images of the sidewalks and puddles of dirty water in various areas of the city. was done to symbolize the frustration that everyday residents of Mexico City endure in an effort to improve their living conditions. that sometimes the only thing that one needs to enjoy their city in a new and unique way can be something as modest as a block of ice. the street, the crowds and the people who populate the street , determine his actions. Passers-by and traffic always provide unexpected twists. In his work Narcotourismo he walked for a week through Copenhagen, each day under the influence of a different dru after followed a depression. In london he walked past houses with fences. like a small child ALuys rattled past them during his walks with a stick. Those walks culminated in a series of short films
Francis Alÿs Paradox of Praxis 1 (Sometimes making something leads to nothing)https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZedESyQEnMA
introduction course The Walking Seminar. Embodied Research Methodologies in emergent Anthropocene Landscapes https://issuu.com/artist-in-residence-ahk/docs/wandelkrant___insert_samengebonden
what walking means in cultural history:
* the wandering scholars and troubadours of the European Middle Ages * Mao's Long March and Gandhi's Walk to the Sea * the man who ritually walked the lenght, from end to end, of every streetin Mahattan. http://www.manhattanwalkblog.com/ and so on walking just as a motion, as process, as a going on in life, a continuum, a mode of selfexpression or dicovery or exploration, a means of bonding with the landscape, or being at a raw level in the environment, like the Indian sadhus with their vowed walks, their walked vows.
Marina Abramovic & Ulay Relation in Space, Venice Biennale 1976. M; “our first performance was, Relation In Space in 1976 and was performed for the Venice Biennale. This idea of this piece was two naked bodies running and hitting each other frontally and increasing the speed for one hour. We really wanted to have this male and female energy put together and create something we called That Self.”
The Great Wall Walk (1988) was based in the idea of the artists walking towards each other, in theirr early work, the pair walked toward each other over and over again with great physical concentration across a small space. in the great wall the while they converged across a fast distance, their walking invoved perhaps even more mental than physical effort. (source: The Lovers, The Great Wall Walk, marina Abramovic and Ulay. pg 95, 112) their experience from the state of walking and also of being in China resulted in works which were exhibited: Boat Emptying, Stream Entering; 3 objects which the audience is asked to use until the energy is transmitted: White Dragon: stand, head resting on a quartz pillow, looking down; Red Dragon: sitting, head resting on a quartz pillow, looking straight ahead; Green Dragon: lie down, head resting on a quartz pillow, looking up. The public is invited to experience physically, with their head resting on a quartz or obsidian cushion and their body in contact with the copper, the degree of energetic emanation conveyed by the materials. Starting from two opposite points, they advanced towards each other for ninety days before coming together. Entitled The Lovers , this action marked not only the end of his relationship and artistic collaboration with Ulay, but also an emotional and creative rebirth. The artist considers The Lovers not as a performance, but rather as the 'conditioning' necessary to create a new work. Boat Emptying, Stream Entering… , comes out of the experience undergone during this journey. The legends were always about the different dragons: Green dragons/Black dragons/White dragons/Red dragons.” Thus, the materials used here are energy-laden intercessors intended to convey to the audience experience.
check it out! plus pictures.