Already the first works of art -hundred thousand years ago- were made by people on the move, on foot, gathering in places celebrating the environment and landscape in cave and rock drawings, in songs and stories, and in dances. What does it mean to draw and shape, to perceive and sense color, to leave a trace and symbols, to compose words in a poetic expression, to introduce new body movements? In East and West, for centuries, painters, poets, dancers were walking in the landscape (natural and urban) and finding sources of reference or inspiration.
Walking stories are carried in memory and remain existing for as long as there is a body to carry them. Walking is not characterized by one solid approach; it can be drifting, wandering, strolling, aimless, or purposeful. Each one of these practices suggests a body that remembers and they are introducing different approaches of storytelling.
Barthes talks about narrative as a human condition, present at all times, at all places, in all societies. Walking is becoming aware, of the physical conditions of the environment, of the creation of an own space in relation to the act of walking. The walker (re)composes and writes the landscape through walking, in a multimodal and multidimensional manner, or to refer to Certeau: walking is writing without being able to see the text. This makes the landscape migrational, metaphorical. A narration can be the outcome of a scenario set by the creative walker to be applied in various places and on several occasions.
Speakers are Effie Yiannopoulou (Greece), JeeYeun Lee (US), Marie-Anne Lerjen and Simone Etter (HUB Switzerland), Christopher Kaczmarek (US) and Deirdre Macleod (UK), moderated by Yannis Ziogas, Associate Professor, Department of Fine and Applied Arts, School of Fine Arts, University of Western Macedonia (Greece)
Speakers were asked to record a presentation and make it available to attendees, as a starting point for further discussion. Available presentations:
Final video of Telegraph (Prespa) by Christopher Kaczmarek (US) and Deirdre Macleod (UK) will be presented at the Café.
Effie Yiannopoulou (Greece)
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Video recording Only available to registered users. |
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Ascending into Trenches
Yannis Ziogas I wander in places visible and invisible. I find objects, I trace experiences, I foresee conditions of creativity. Where do I locate myself? I have been in places […]I have wondered in conditions and situations[…] And now I am here. Where is that here? Who do I find in this here?
0.68mi Walk Around a Tree in Maplecrest NY, USA 2024
In this walking art piece, a simple yet evocative action unfolds over 18 minutes and 20 seconds, transforming a rural Catskills landscape into a meditation on connection, presence, and the changing dynamics of perception. The work takes the viewer on a journey around a tree in Maplecrest, NY, using the act of walking as both an artistic practice and a means of creating an evolving relationship with the environment.