Search
My feed

The content referenced here is third party content and was included by monitoring the source website.

https://teaching.ellenmueller.com/walking/2024/01/07/fred-forest-hygiene-of-art-the-city-invaded-by-blank-space-1973/ To the source
post Walking as Artistic Practice 7 Jan, 2024

Fred Forest, Hygiene of Art: The City Invaded by Blank Space (1973)

This was a performance walking by Fred Forest in the streets of São Paulo, Brazil under the military dictatorship. The artist hired 15 professional sandwich board men to walk with him carrying blank signs. “The goal of this series of provocative actions undertaken under the cover of art was to create symbolic/utopian spaces of popular […]

85
São Paulo, State of São Paulo, Brazil
url

Walking as Artistic Practice

The webpage "Walking as Art and Cultural Practice" by Ellen Mueller explores the interdisciplinary study of walking from artistic, cultural, and geographic perspectives. It presents walking not just as a mode of locomotion but as a creative and performative act that intersects with spatiality, identity, and environment. The site compiles scholarly resources, theoretical frameworks, and case studies that link walking to concepts such as psychogeography, map-making, and embodied experience, highlighting its role in both contemporary art practices and historical cultural rituals. Additionally, the page situates walking within broader discussions about place-making, social interaction, and urban exploration, addressing how walking can serve as a method for engaging critically with social and spatial structures. The content includes examples of artists and practitioners who use walking as a medium, emphasizing its capacity to challenge conventional boundaries of artistic production and spatial awareness. This resource is designed to support research and teaching by providing curated references and conceptual tools related to walking as an artistic and cultural phenomenon.
Ellen Mueller
Archives
Sub-collection

Activism or Protest

Sub-collection · 58 items
Sub-collection

Power Dynamics

Sub-collection · 35 items

Spectacle

Collection · 14 items
Sub-collection

surveillance

Sub-collection · 17 items

Related

Walking piece

Hygiene of Art: The City Invaded by Blank Space

The City Invaded by Blank Space (1973) is a participatory artwork presented at the 12th São Paulo Biennial during Brazil’s military dictatorship. Through blank signs, media interventions, and public actions, it created spaces for free expression, challenged censorship and state control, and culminated in the artist’s arrest, marking a powerful act of political resistance.

Fred Forest
Walking piece

Gates of Troy

Gates of Troy (1969) unravels aluminum in the street, referencing Homer’s Iliad - Achilles dragging Hector’s corpse. The twisting metal takes on a corporeal presence, documented in both street and studio photographs.

Rosemarie Castoro
Walking piece

Walking the Cabbage

Walking the Cabbage (2000–2025) by Han Bing is a social intervention in which he walks a Chinese cabbage on a leash through public spaces, using absurdist performance to question social norms, material values, and contemporary Chinese life.

Han Bing
Walking piece

Ausfegen (Sweeping Up)

On May 1, 1972, Joseph Beuys and two students swept Karl-Marx-Platz in West Berlin, collecting rubbish from Labor Day demonstrations. The act highlighted social inequalities, embodied his idea of art as social transformation, and reflected his political activism.

Joseph Beuys

drift

A walk with an open net.

Added by Alec Finlay
Problem?

Encountered a problem? Report it to let us know.

  • Include the page on which you encountered the problem.
  • Describe what happened.
  • Describe what you expected to happen.
Follow us