We all live under the same sky. The sky, like the virus, knows no borders or boundaries. Walking as a Political Gesture brought together a range of artists from across the globe to discuss forms of socio-political walking in different parts of the world. This, at a time where social distancing regulations meet international solidarity to recognise the urgency and struggle of those denied the freedom of movement that many of us take for granted.
Walking has given people the opportunity to express deep-seated aims and argue for social, political, and environmental change. In support of ideas, rights, opportunities, and social innovation, artists from across the world have walked to advocate new thought. How can walking allow us to cross limitations, challenge traditions and express opinion in the flesh? What contribution can artists make to highlight boundaries, a different pace of life or new ideas? What do art and walking have in common to make those visible?
The event was held digitally and formed part of Deveron Project’s Slow Marathon 2020: Under One Sky project with artist Iman Tajik.
Contributors
Chair: Deirdre Heddon holds the James Arnott Chair in Drama at the University of Glasgow (UK). She has published widely on autobiographical performance, live art, and walking practices, and is keenly interested in the politics of performance. She also pursues research through creative practice, and is the co-founder of The Walking Library, which has been commissioned by Sideways Festival, The Bothy Project, Women Walking, Glasgow Life, and The National Forest. She is co-editor of a new series for Palgrave Macmillan, Performing Landscapes.
Hamish Fulton is an English walking artist, who since 1972 has only made works based on the experience of walks. He translates his walks into a variety of media, including photography, illustrations, and wall texts. His work is contained in major museums collections, such as the Tate Britain and MoMA. Known for his solitary long-distance walks, since 1994 he has begun practicing group walks.
Kubra Khademi is an Afghan performance artist based in Paris. She studied fine arts at Kabul University before attending Beaconhouse National University in Lahore, Pakistan on a scholarship. In Lahore she began to create public performances, a practice she continued upon her return to Kabul, where her work actively responded to a society dominated by extreme patriarchal politics. After performing her piece Armor in 2015, Khademi was forced to flee Afghanistan due to a fatwa and death threats. She is currently living and working in Paris.
Hyppolite Ntigurirwa is an artist, activist, and founder of Be the Peace, an organization focusing on the use of art to halt the intergenerational transmission of hate and to promote the power of cross-generational healing. A child survivor of the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi, Hyppolite continues to promote reconciliation and peace throughout Rwanda and the African Great Lakes Region. In 2019, he envisioned and conducted the Be the Peace walk a 100-day performance piece in which he walked across the country in commemoration of 25 years since the end of the genocide. Hyppolite was an international Artist in Residence with Arts Connect International in Boston in 2016. Since then he has worked as Arts Manager for the British Council in Rwanda, focused on disability rights and societal inclusion. He is a Peace Ambassador for One Young World Peace Scholar and his work has been covered by global media including BBC, NPR, SABC, and Dutchwelle.
Iman Tajik is an Iranian artist and photographer based in Glasgow. Tajik’s work is anchored in a strong social interest connected to international movements for social change. Tajik’s work addresses issues of contemporary conditions of life with a particular focus on migration and globalisation – thereby bridging the gap between art and activism, to create work as a form of socio-political currency, addressing power structures. He works across video, photography, installations and performance through which he ’performs the border’ and that speak to personal experiences of crossing geographical borders. All insist on the right to freedom of movement. In summer 2020 he is undertaking Slow Marathon: Under One Sky a world-wide Solidarity walk in collaboration with Deveron Projects.
Claudia Zeiske is the founding Director of Deveron Projects. Through its Walking Institute, she has undertaken multiple projects that relate to walking and politics. Those included among many others the UK Border Walk with Rocca Gutteridge and Home to Home a long-distance walk as a reaction to Brexit from her home in Huntly/Aberdeenshire to Unterpfaffenhofen near Munich, where she was brought up and her mother still lives.
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/gUzDfaWQwpA" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>
