A grey afternoon, just before sunset as the tide turns on the River Thames, a middle-aged man with cap and coat walks across the shingle at Limehouse foreshore that has been laid bare by the outgoing tide.
During the setting of the sun (15.54 GMT) and the turning of the tide (15.59 GMT) Rotterdam performance artist Toine Horvers performed ‘Rotation 5’, slowly rotating on his axis, calling out the words north, east, south, west at the moment he faces these directions. During the following rotations he calls out the names of the four wind directions in 65 languages.
Toine Horvers decided to perform Rotation 5 in as many as possible situations and asked art institutes and interested individuals to suggest a space and a day:hour and make an announcement. So internationally acclaimed light artist, Peter Fink, whose Studio Pink is located on the street that takes you to the Limehouse foreshore, suggested the location and chose Saturday 3 December 2022.
Peter claims Toine’s performance as ‘walking art’ and was keen that a representative from walk · listen · create attended the performance. What are your thoughts? Toine takes a step to turn in each direction, so was the performance one of the shortest walked pieces of walking art?
So what is your definition of ‘walking art’? Join us to discuss this and help us search out other walking works, at our fee monthly Walking Detectives online meet-up – our next is on Monday 12 December.
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