HappyTourists is a travel agency that hijacks the codes of the tourism industry to encourage alternative, artistic travels. It is a provocative and disruptive project, founded in Berlin in 2018, with the aim of raising awareness about how mass tourism impacts the environment, while inventing new ways to be (or not to be) a tourist. HappyTourists’ mission is to bring serendipity, chaos and disorder into the tourism industry, by using artistic practice, in order to awaken critical thinking and open up new spaces to explore.
Convinced that discovery is more about personal experience than expected outcomes, HappyTourists designs creative impulses that set people in motion without imposing a destination. Our protocols subvert the codes of the tourism industry to divert tourists from attractions and allow for unexpected encounters. Like any travel agency, Happytourists organises tours in the city called Happynings, which are unguided and lead tourists “where nobody is going, because there is nothing to see ». Happynings are for international tourists as well as domestic travellers or inhabitants of the city willing to change perspective on their own environment. Happynings connect individual sensibilities to build a trip as a collective piece of art. Participants interpret abstract, poetic and offbeat directions to curate their own derive. Once in motion, they are encouraged to follow their instinct and perform the place instead of consuming it.
For this workshop, HappyTourists has designed a specific itinerary entitled “Happyning to the more-than-humans’»
Divided into groups, participants will select a series of prompts designed to forster interpretation, creativity, audace and critical thinking. Following those instructions, participants will set off on a journey that will take them through the city as strangers in the ancient kingdom of ants, stray cats and bats. They might visit burrows, ask trees for directions or come across some wild, undomesticated inhabitants. They’ll find souvenirs in the store of scents and bird songs, or collect clouds and air breezes before coming back together to share their experiences.
Experiences will be documented through videos, photographs, stories and any other forms invented by the adventurers. They will be archived to create an alternative tourist guide to the land of the more-than-humans in the form of a small exhibition. This guide will provide future visitors with suggestions, knowledge and instructions for experimenting with a new way of being or not being a tourist, creating unexpected “situations” that can be poetic and absurd, but always space-making and political.
Participants nr: max. 30
Duration: 3H
Meeting point: Art gallery Garagem Avenida
Meeting time: 2pm
