Why We Walk: Wit and Meanderings
Curator, Organiser
Flâneurs, borne of post-revolution Paris as it succumbed to the growing pains of industrialisation, were a distinct urban breed. Rich in time and money, they took to the streets, not to protest or reclaim the nation as an enraged French populace did a generation before, but to walk amidst thronging crowds. Bereft of errands or schedules, flânerie of the 19th century shares a few important attributes with contemporary art: both favour participatory spectatorship and, propelled by inquisitiveness, both wander deliberately into unknown territories.
Away from the neatly manicured road of learned appropriateness, detours of the mind provide momentary respite from "common sense", during which the flâneuring artist may confront new ideas or regard old ones from a different viewpoint. Why We Walk brings together a handful of stories from these trips beyond, creating a patchwork travel itinerary that locates new, previously un-Googlable points of the mental world map: Granoux's incessant search for the word "Gap" on signages around the world echoing his hometown of the same name; McTernan's tender correspondence to an ill-fated building from her transcontinental expedition; Serandon's jigged readings of Marcel Broodthaers, amongst other works. Decidedly modest in gesture, the artists of the project are less interested in the immediacy of epic scales, preferring instead to focus on the transformative powers of the small and minimal.
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List of works:
Pierre Granoux (FR / DE) Off The Map (2008 - ongoing)
Nicolas Manenti (FR / DE) Betriebsferien (1994 - 2005), Unfinished (2011)
Elizabeth McTernan (US / DE) Composition For a Wall Marked For Demolition, As Mountains Wash Down to the Sea (2011)
Aléxandre Negrelli (FR / DE) I Thought We Were Right (2011)
Rüdiger Schlömer (DE) the writings of... (2007)
Vadim Sérandon (FR) Bro__th_er_ (2011)
Bignia Wehrli (CH / DE) + Anna Forlati (IT) A Thousand Pitfalls (2010 - ongoing)
