Walking in Art

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ART AND ACTIVISM

In this series, students from the Graduate School of Humanities at the University of Amsterdam (UvA) explore the complex overlaps and conversations between art and activism. They seek to illustrate how artistic practices often speak to the urgency of protest and activism, and how activism intertwines with the demands of art. In the form of close analysis, interviews, and creative responses, these works trace the prevalent links between art and activism through the relationships between space, the everyday, and explicit or underlying modes of resistance.

These podcast episodes were created by students in the masters course Art and Activism, and were originally published here.

WALKING IN ART

‍This episode thinks about walking as not only an essential human act, but also an effective form of
resistance, which has attracted artists and activists alike. Guided by walking exercises you are invited
to explore your environment while or between learning about the meaning of your own bodily
movement in and through space – especially thinking through the category of gender and how the
latter alters your walking practice and its significance.

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CREDITS

RESEARCH
Mijs Besseling & Lynn Gommes

TRANSLATION
Johanna von Kietzell

SCRIPT & RECORDING
Mijs Besseling, Lynn Gommes, Simone van der Steen & Johanna von Kietzell

EDITING
Simone van der Steen

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SOURCES

• Debord, Guy, ‘Theory of the Dérive’ trans. by Ken Knabb, Situationist International Online,
  https://www.cddc.vt.edu/sionline/si/theory.html
• Heddon, Deirdre and Cathy Turner (2012) ‘Walking Women: Shifting the Tales and Scales of
  Mobility’, Contemporary Theatre Review, 22:2, 224-236.
• Heddon, Deirdre and Cathy Turner (2010) ‘Walking Women: Interviews with artists on the move’,
  Performance Research, 15:4, 14-22.
• Özlem Özgül Dündar, Mia Göhring, Ronya Othmann, Lea Sauer. Flexen, Flaneusen* schreiben
  Städte, Berlin: Verbrecher Verlag, 2019. Print. Translation our own.
• Sullivan, Lexi Lee, Cole Swensen, and Helen Mirra. Walking Sculpture, 1967-2015. Lincoln,
  Massachusetts: deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum, 2015. Print.
• Trier, James ‘Guy Debord’s “The Society of the Spectacle”, Journal of Adolescent and
  Adult Literacy, Vol 51, No. 1 pp. 68-73.
• Vegt, Han van der (1993-94) ‘Het leven zal in de poëzie wonen: lettristen en situationisten’, Vooys,
  12:4, p. 202-209.
• Wrights & Sites, ‘A Manifesto for a New Walking Culture: “Dealing with the city”’, Performance
  Research, 11:2, 115-122, 2006.
• Wrights & Sites. A Mis-Guide to Anywhere, Exeter, UK, 2006.

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