15.07. – Anfang August 2008
Kinga Araya – Introduction and Project Description.
I am a Polish-born and Canadian educated artist who came to Berlin last October to continue her artistic and critical research on contemporary performance art at the ICI Berlin Institute. To mark the twenty-year anniversary of defecting Poland in Florence, Italy, I will make a special performance artwork, “Performing Exile,” to be executed in July and August 2008 along the former Berlin Wall. I would like to take this opportunity and welcome your participation.
Project Description:
From July 15 until early August, 2008, I will walk the entire length of the former Berlin Wall (160 km) with one person (or a group of people). The walk will take about 3 weeks. I am looking for diverse forms of interactions with the walkers: artistic, linguistic, philosophical, political, social etc. The participants of any age, gender, profession, and nationality are welcomed. Every day would be planned so the walker(s) would know where we meet and what we are going to discuss. With your permission, I would like to record the walks to include the video, photo and audio material in the future publication.
The topics that I am particularly interested in exploring during our walks are:
The phenomenon of exile versus citizenship
Any personal experiences of exile, immigration and displacement
The aspect of tension (social, cultural, political) experienced in Berlin and elsewhere
Dichotomy of walking and standing still (impossibility of walking)
Any direct experiences with/about the Berlin Wall
The stories of successful and unsuccessful escapes through illegal border crossings
The stories of other walls, invisible yet oppressive and constraining human movement
The poetics and politics of performance art – (any subject, it could be based on your art practice,
the walkers are especially welcome)
Any other topics that are not addressed here
Besides Polish, I speak English, Italian, and French (currently learning German), so I would be interested in conversing with you in those languages. I am open to welcoming other languages for provocative collaborations with or without a translator.
Most walks would take place during the day, however, I would like to perform a few night walks as well. We could walk with our eyes closed, backwards, crawling, walking very slowly, standing still, walking with special objects, artworks etc. I would walk from sunrise to sunset (or sunset to sunrise), but the invited walker(s) could join me for a shorter, previously arranged, time.
I would greatly appreciate if you could let me know soon about your possible participation in this project. Please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any questions: ka@kingaaraya.com
For more details about my work please visit KINGA ARAYA
Thank you very much,
Kinga Araya