The covid-19 situation has brought about a restriction to civil liberties unprecedented in our
lifetime. On a matter of public concern, new logics of visibility and mobility have modified
urban interactions and attendance. What can be the role of art in this current political, social,
environmental, and medical situation? In what ways public space art explores alternative modes of life and (co) existence? How does the wake of the pandemic have challenged our atomized movement through city spaces? How do we negotiate space? And what does “together” mean in times of social distancing?
My walking project will be ground on the experience of live embodied practice and exploration
of the public body in common areas. For that reason, I will follow a site-based methodology
designing choreographic scores based on actions of presence, movement, and attendance. Every score varies based on different acts, and the public is welcome to perform the actions
collectively. With choreographic scores, I would like to implement a format of an artistic/research coupling and conjure up a choreographic site practice and reflections on the body in various conceptual gestures and walking patterns in public locations. The scores are physical actions based on typical patterns of group proxemic behavior, flow composition, and gestures. Each score encourages involvement in choreographic actions. People are invited to cooperative activities to create walking shapes in the everyday public space, reflect on and explore the new state of distance, intimacy, and the sense of belonging between individuals and society. The BODY_PUBLIC performative walk sparks interest in collective matters and specific social issues. As follows, the (public) body becomes something more than a physical invention, a site for representation and reference. The BODY_PUBLIC uses a mobile methodology and encourages a community in the relationship of bodies to one another.
Related
Pandemic walking (seminar)
The Covid 19 crisis of 2020-21 has taken many names, including “The Great Pause.” It has forced us to halt our usual habit patterns and critically reflect on how we conduct our daily lives. New forms of movement and sociability have emerged in the wake of this global pandemic. Why and how do people develop
• +2 Street Haunting: Reflections on staying at home and walking the city
Johanna Steindorf’s audio paper reflects on how pandemic-related sheltering in place has altered experiences of staying at home and walking in the city, drawing on Virginia Woolf’s and Xavier de Maistre’s writings. She discusses her artistic projects, including video and audio walks that explore mediated presences in urban spaces, examining their implications for understanding space and future experiences.
Days of Dark & Light – poems by David Thompson
Recent poems by Frome (Somerset) writer, who explains that during the period from early 2020 to mid-2021, when the Covid-19 pandemic dominated much of daily life, many elements of experience were limited by an array of restrictions. Without travel, or the opportunity for everyday encounters, imagination and memory became even more important. In his case,
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