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SWS23 2023

Άφρικα: A Certain Kind of Freedom

Agios Achillios, Greece
60 minutes
Free

Walking Visions / Walking arts Encounters

3 - 10 Jul, 2023 · 7 items

Soundwalk

Collection · 262 items

performance

Collection · 171 items

environment

Collection · 216 items

creating encounters

Collection · 153 items
Sound walk
No longer available

In part soundwalk, in part performance art, in part punk archaeology, in part getting lost in the dark; ‘Άφρικα: A Certain Kind of Freedom’ is a nocturnal rumination bringing together historical bewilderedness with first-person embodied experience of a place. The artist leads a night walk towards and inwards Agios Achillios island in Small Prespa Lake – near the borders of Greece, Albania, and North Macedonia – and back. En route, the walking audience is exposed to wildlife sounds and animal vocalisations, to orchestrated drama, and to historical records directly or indirectly concerning the broader area and its significance during the Greek civil war. This region has been the theater for many violent fights and atrocities that are deemed of the bloodiest pages in Greek history and that still seem reverberate contemporary politics/tenets. The involvement of the USA in these events is regarded as the first implementation of the Truman Doctrine and, thus, the first act of the imminent Cold War. Given the substantial involvement in Greek affairs for several decades to follow, Greece is generally thought of as one of the first instances of USA-controlled state-building. The area surrounding Prespa Lakes is only scarcely inhabited ever since. Yet, it remains a vibrant wildlife habitat rich in vegetation, forests, and wild mammals (such as boars, bears, deers). The Small Prespa Lake, in particular, hosts several different species of birds, frogs, toads, reptiles, and fish. ‘ΑΦΡΙΚΑ: A Certain Kind of Freedom’ attempts to (re)situate history, contemporary ramifications thereof, and own subjective sense-making within this unique habitat, inviting the night-walking audience to contemplate on ‘freedom’ – conceptual, imaginary, or actual freedom.

Credits

Marinos Koutsomichalis, artist
Hosted by: International Walking Art Encounters Conference 2023: Walking Visions/Visions for Walking

APA style reference

marinosk (2023). Άφρικα: A Certain Kind of Freedom. walk · listen · create. https://walklistencreate.org/walkingpiece/%ce%ac%cf%86%cf%81%ce%b9%ce%ba%ce%b1-a-certain-kind-of-freedom/

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pedestrian acts

By de Certeau: In “Walking in the City”, de Certeau conceives pedestrianism as a practice that is performed in the public space, whose architecture and behavioural habits substantially determine the way we walk. For de Certeau, the spatial order “organises an ensemble of possibilities (e.g. by a place in which one can move) and interdictions (e.g. by a wall that prevents one from going further)” and the walker “actualises some of these possibilities” by performing within its rules and limitations. “In that way,” says de Certeau, “he makes them exist as well as emerge.” Thus, pedestrians, as they walk conforming to the possibilities that are brought about by the spatial order of the city, constantly repeat and re-produce that spatial order, in a way ensuring its continuity. But, a pedestrian could also invent other possibilities. According to de Certeau, “the crossing, drifting away, or improvisation of walking privilege, transform or abandon spatial elements.” Hence, the pedestrians could, to a certain extent, elude the discipline of the spatial order of the city. Instead of repeating and re-producing the possibilities that are allowed, they can deviate, digress, drift away, depart, contravene, disrupt, subvert, or resist them. These acts, as he calls them, are pedestrian acts.

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