Every atom of oxygen in our lungs, of carbon in our muscles, of calcium in our bones, of iron in our blood – was created inside a star before Earth was born.

FROM DUST TO STARDUST a sensorial walk in deep time
by Ienke kastelein, Beatrice Khoumeri and Peter Schreuder
Banyoles, July 5, 17.30 – 20.00 – 2024
Part of the Walking Art and Relational Geographies Conference Girona – Banyoles 2024

During the Walking Art and Relational Geographies Encounters in Girona and Banyoles scientist Beatrice Khoumeri and artists Peter Schreuder and Ienke Kastelein collaborated in developing a walk that combines perspectives of art and science on time and planetary existence. The performative walk culminated in a collective creation with participants joining in an encounter with a sensorial approach to whirling time and the crust of the earth.

Banyoles, July 5, 17.30 – 20.00 – 2024
After an introduction to open up awareness of our bodies and minds to the nature of time we set out for a silent walk from the Plaza Major in Banyoles passing by the Lake to the Estunes de Banyoles and back. Throughout this 4.6 km walk – equaling the story of planet Earth from its formation approximately 4.6 billion years ago to the present day 1 – we were guided by Beatrice’s voice crossing different imaginary landscapes — mineral, vegetal, urban, and rural—venturing to Earth’s farthest reaches, immersing ourselves in the elements that shape our universe, from soil and rivers to the atmosphere and beyond while being fully present in the sensorial reality of the actual landscape.

Our walk began with spiraling and whirling movements, inspired by Earth’s dance around the sun. Walkers were encouraged to engage fully with their breathing, senses, hearts, and minds, navigating not just through space, but also through time. Peter Schreuder invited everyone to pick-up things along the way to become part of a clay ball in the end, an embodiment of the shared experience, of both imaginary and sensorial time space that serves as a tactile archive of the walk. The clay ball represents the Earth and each participant’s contribution to it symbolizes the materials that our planet attracted during its genesis. Everyone’s sensitivity is gathered in one object showing that we all belong to and should care for our mother earth.

In the words of the Russian poet Joseph Brodsky: “…because when we look around us / all that we can see is made of the same fabric as we are../ For that reason, we might say that the world manifests itself through us. We ARTICULATE the world“

This combined exploration, guided by the spirit of discovery, invited participants to engage in a comprehensive journey where scientific inquiry, artistic expression, and spiritual contemplation were intertwined, fostering necessary awareness. It evoked a myriad of sensations and reflections on our place in the universe, our impact on climate and biodiversity, and the profound interplay of energy and matter and on the vulnerability of human kind inhabiting planet Earth.

1. The walk was inspired by The Deep Time Walking proposed by Stephan Harding of Stanford College that involves walking 4.6 km to narrate the story of our planet Earth from its formation approximately 4.6 billion years ago to the present day. In this immersive experience, each meter walked evokes 100 million years, while every centimeter represents a million years. The emergence of humans around 3 million years ago underscores the impressive timescale. https://www.deeptimewalk.org/about/history/

Attachment 1.
Introduction to time on the Plaza Major, Banyoles by ienke kastelein

Before we go – a performative practice on Plaza Major
Please stand in a circle – as close to the centre and each each other as possible.
Breath in breath out ………. turn around your axe once left, once right.

Regarding time
There is a time before we use words to wonder about everything that we encounter,
a time when we sense, touch, smell, see, hear inside and out.
We left the ocean inside our mother’s womb to find ourselves out here in the world under the sky, with nature.
At a very early age children look up at the dark sky wondering about the stars and the moon – will the light return? I remember endlessly repeating the word oneindigheid > in English: infinity > in Catalan : infinit > in French: infini
(please repeat this word in your own language and listen to your voice when you say the word)

Children wonder about death – what does it mean: dead?
What remains? Where do memories go? We carry these questions with us our entire life. Faintly we have the notion of belonging to and being of ancient times, other times, other spaces, other substances –. Our precious bodies – in the end falling apart in so many particles – dust in the wind, dust in the desert – stardust.
SENSING time – becoming time: whirling
The nature of time is circular – we are rotating at an incredible speed as we speak, we see the sun come up and go down, the moon circles around us. Now let us truly become part of this movement in motion.(remember the Dervishes)

Find a place on this square and start rotating. Start with your arms next to your body, slowing lifting them, embracing all that is around you and then lowering them again while you keep on turning. – keep breathing in and out – Do it at least three times clockwise and counterclockwise.
When you are ready please return to the circle

SPIRAL WALK
Stand in the circle – we are the dots of the line of that forms the circle.
Half of the group follows ienke Half of the group follows Peter
Ienkes group turns 90º to the right counterclockwise (outside)
Peters group turns 90º to the left clockwise (inside)
– we are walking a circle wider and wider – and then smaller and smaller to the smallest form – ienke leads the out-side circle, Peter follows as inner-circle
– until we stand in the center of circle

Now let’s walk, starting from the depths of time within us – join us in silence on the 4.6 km long Walk in Deep Time. Beatrice will guide us as a narrator through the billions of years of the universe’s becoming. Peter is inviting you to collect small things that attract you along the way; these will be part of a clay ball that will serve as a tactile document of the walk and an expression of our attachment to the fragility of our planet: earth.

B. Khoumeri Chemistry Lecturer, University of Corsica, France, [email protected]
I. Kastelein Interdisciplinary artist, The Netherlands, www.ienkekastelein.nl
P. Schreuder Independent artist and teacher, Lausanne, Switzerland, https://peterschreuder.org/