Walking through invisible architectures
Commentary on Here whilst we walk by Gustavo Ciríaco and Andrea Sonnberger
Victoria
Pérez Royo
Europa-Universitat
Viadrina, Frankfurt (Oder)
The sophistication of conscience in the arts is such at this time
(1969) that it could be affirmed
that the almost trance-like random movements of buyers in supermarkets
possess greater dynamism than any modern dance choreography (Kaprow
2007:13,14).
The most
interesting dance is not to be found on stage but in supermarkets; superior art
is to be found not so much in a gallery exhibition but in the diverse objects,
actions and situations that shape our daily lives and which, according to the
author of the quotation, can range from the dust under the bed as a convincing
exhibition to the Vietnam war as the best possible form of theatre.
Moving beyond
the proposal to shock his readers, aimed at reviving and awakening their
awareness, what we read in these introductory pages of Allan Kaprow’s The education of the un-artist is the firm
belief in a creative perception. This is a trained sensitivity resulting
from century after century of art (and anti-art) that is finally capable of
perceiving its environment with aesthetic criteria. Awareness is understood as
the primary founding instance of not only phenomenological but also aesthetic
feeling. In this way, Kaprow defends the idea of art not being found in the
object but rather in the eye of the beholder. For the above-mentioned phenomena
(the Vietnam War, movements of supermarket buyers) to become art all that is
required is the gaze that captures them and, by submerging them into an
aesthetic experience, awards them this status. According to Kaprow, the subject
who perceives the objects in the environment in an aesthetic manner is not an
artist (the one who creates them), nor an anti-artist (who creates objects
against art) but an un-artist (who perceives them as art and transforms them
with his gaze).
A fundamental
figure in this trend in twentieth century art is that of the flâneur. This is one of the key figures
of modernism, essentially characterized by his predisposition towards the
environment and a marked degree of attention to his surroundings.: “stroller,
philosopher and observer” Baudelaire, 2005:22), archivist of fleeting moments,
of mundane situations, understood
from the outset as the figure par excellence in terms of his attention
to his natural surroundings, the city, alert to its transformations great and
small, completely immersed in the racket of the multiple distractions that the
metropolis offers the onlooker.
For the perfect flâneur, for the passionate observer, it is an immense
joy to find oneself in numbers, in undulation, in movement, in the fleeting and
the infinite. To be outside oneself, and nevertheless to feel oneself
everywhere inside oneself (Baudelaire, 2005:28)
To achieve
this the flâneur’s preferred
observation methodology is that of
strolling; especially within the movement of the walking masses of the city the
flâneur can intensify his availability
to his surroundings, to the unexpected, the accessory and the accidental
contained therein. A walk constitutes the preferred formula for capturing
certain details which can be woven together like a speech (conceived in the
manner of a scientific reflection) as he advances along his route. (Benjamin,
1983:567).
Throughout the
twentieth century one has seen the development of an artistic trend that
employs walking as primary material for the creation of a piece; most of the
works of this new genre have an implicit or explicit reference to the figure of
the flâneur combined with the desire
to develop a creative perception of
the environment, fundamental for its later transformation.
The piece, Here whilst we walk by Gustavo Ciríaco
and Andrea Sonnberger (presented for the first time in 2006), is intimately
related to this thesis. Between 15 and 20 participants meet at a chosen place
in the city together with Ciríaco and Sonnberger to go on a walk along a route
previously unknown to the participants. The peculiarity of the walk lies in the
fact that the walkers throughout the entire event are contained within a
reduced space by an elastic band which groups all the participants together and
thus clearly delimits a frontier between internal and external space. Here whilst we walk was conceived during
Close Encounters, a project which, as
Ciríaco explains, has the peculiarity of motivating the creation of spatially
specific works that paradoxically had to travel to various cities (Ciríaco
2006). To do this, as its creators commented, it was not so much a matter of choosing a place that
would provide a location for a performance, but rather to focus on a
type of space: one that is defined not so much by its buildings or urban
distribution, but by the people that inhabit it. And from the beginning this
piece thus localises the architectonic not so much in terms of stable
structures (buildings, squares) but an ephemeral architecture, a state of
constant formation and destruction which is the essential urban fabric weaving
and unravelling itself in the street; the architectonic aspect is to be found
less in the physical and visible physical structure of the street, than in the
different forms of inhabiting it.
Thus in this piece we have a primary level
of creation of space, a creation of ephemeral architectures, operated by means
of a symbolic transformation of the existing space directly associated with the
premises contained in Kaprow’s words: perception does not consist in mere
passive capacity, but also possesses the power to create and transform the
reality it perceives. So it not surprising that the only explicit indication
given to the participants in Here whilst we
walk before starting out is that
they are not permitted to talk, take photographs or use video-cameras. This
underlines the authors’ interest in preserving a heightened sense of
perception, freeing their gaze from other concerns, which constitutes an
essential requirement for the discovery of art outside its traditional contexts
of galleries and theatres and to transform the environment in which they are
moving.
Of
considerable assistance in this context is the alternative concept of
architecture (nomad architecture) proposed by Francesco Careri in his
definitive work Walkscapes. In it the
Italian writer sets out two distinct forms of inhabiting the earth:” that of
the cavern and the plough that digs its own space in the entrails of the earth,
and that of the tent placed on the earth’s surface without leaving any lasting
imprint on it”(Careri, 2002:36). The first form of inhabiting the earth,
sedentary, as indicated by Careri, is related to the traditional accepted
concept of architecture; the construction of spaces comprising the erection of
durable buildings. By contrast the
Italian author presents a nomadic form of inhabiting the earth’s landscape,
which would correspond to an architecture understood as “a perception and
symbolic construction of space”. Walking, from this viewpoint, constitutes not
only a physical construction of space (in the style of the pedestrian enunciation proposed by Michel de Certeau) but also, as
Careri points out, a cultural and symbolic transformation of already defined
spaces. And this point could be what epitomizes the difference between
occupying a space and inhabiting it, between situating oneself at a
geographical point and living within it.
Perhaps the
best exponent of untangling the subjective strategies of symbolic and cultural
appropriation deployed by the individual in relation to his architectonic and
spatial environment is Gaston Bachelard in his Poetics of Space. In this essay he develops a methodology for the
analysis of space, the so-called topoanalysis,
a systematic psychological study of the sites of our intimate life. In it
Bachelard develops a particular phenomenology of poetic imagination centered on
the study of the specific environment of the space of the inner self. He starts
from a topological analysis which designates certain places such as the home or
the nest and certain coordinates such as outside and inside that function as
triggers to the reader’s daydreams.
By combing through the various uses in literature of each of these
places, Bachelard presents the images, anxieties and sensations associated with
each of these concrete topoi .In
spite of being confined to the field of poetry and literature, topoanalysis
becomes a valuable tool for understanding the workings of the imagination
inhabiting and transforming a space symbolically or culturally, whether real
and material or merely written on a page. The procedure can be studied with the
example of a corner, as Bachelard proposes: “every corner of a house, every
corner of a room, every reduced space where we like to snuggle, to curl up in,
is solitude for the imagination, that is, the germ of a room, the germ of a
house” (Bachelard, 1994: 171). Any place in which one can think of curling up
contains in the imagination of the observer the germ of a corner, the potential
to become a cosy corner within which one could relive moments of solitude and silence.
The mechanism of the poetic imagination of space functions by means of a
projection of daydreams, fantasy, desire and the memory of places previous to
the current geometry. The projections of the imagination are assimilated into
this geometric and objective architecture, dispassionate,
transforming its contents, its potential, its connotations and its
suggestions. The strict geometry
of a building resists in principle, as Bachelard explains: “to certain
metaphors that explain the human soul”; however when this building is
recognised, appropriated, is lived in as in a house, for example, it is
immediately associated with a series of images that make up the sensation of
the home place “a space that must condense and defend intimacy. Then, in a
totally irrational way, oneirism follows.” (Bachelard 1994:80). The idea is one
of appropriating spaces, inhabiting them through imagination and memory,
developing imaginative tactics to transform the existing space, to construct a
second architecture that superimposes itself on the first; it consists in
creating an invisible geography on top of what is already there, objective and
undeniable, to project sensibility and subjectivity onto an architecture that
is in principle unknown; it involves inhabiting the objective geometry adapting
it to the peculiarities of a radical
individuality and subjectivity, which are constructed by something as
intimate and personal as one’s own memories, anxieties and the fantasies that
inhabit one’s consciousness.
In this sense
the previous architectures are transformed symbolically and culturally; an
ephemeral architecture such as that described by Careri is created and
constructed, based on the projection of subjectivity over what exists. This
would constitute a first architectural construction plan in Here whilst we walk. Through the
heightened attention developed along their walk in silence through the city,
the participants have the opportunity to see their surroundings as if for the
first time, dissociated from its functionality, of its routine character, to
now perceive it as an object capable of arousing daydreams, upon which they can
project their sensitivity. In facilitating this state of openness in the
participants towards their surroundings, the notion of labyrinth that dominated
the creation process of the work has been fundamental. As Sonnberger and
Ciríaco point out, this spatial figure has the clear function of permitting a
renewed vision of the day to day environment. Curiously the labyrinth was
reflected in the work in the form of an absence: the absence of a previous plan
known to the participants.
In a labyrinth one is not conscious of everything, the future, the
plan, of something previously experienced. In it one has the experience, the
immediacy of one’s experience. [...] We didn’t want to provide a plan to our
spectator-participants. Instead of the experience of the street, we prefer the
experience of the walk, the aimless strolling of the flâneur (Ciríaco, 2006).
This
labyrinthine roaming facilitates a state of spiritual openness in the
participant, in the walker: he does not know the end of the route, so he cannot
foresee its trajectory or its direction; he cannot anticipate events or take
for granted what he learns along the walk , as each new element that appears
before him can be significant. On the website that accompanies the work (www.herewhilstwe.de) which is
available to participants to share their experiences, we find that one of the
recurring commentaries from participants refers to the acquisition along the
walk of a vision that has been renewed and prepared for surprise in a space
that is both familiar and generally taken for granted.
The notion of
a labyrinth is fundamental too in the architectural conception of Hélio
Oiticica, as it leads to the discovery of another architectural dimension of Here whilst we walk. Certain concepts
coined and developed by this Brazilian artist such as Parangolé and delirium
ambulatorium have constituted an explicit reference in the creation of this
piece. Parangolé is the term employed
to designate a series of works that Oiticica began at the end of 1964 as a
result of his involvement with the passistas
community and his friends from Manguiera Shanty Town, with whom he discovered dance and movement as
the ideal medium in which to continue with his investigation of space¹. The
parangolés were flags, banners, capes and tents made out of plastic bags,
with a potential chromatic architecture, which were revealed or activated by the
participation of the public in their movement or displacement or dance. Parangolé represents the end of a
progressive development of the dematerialisation of the object, the implication
of the subjectivity of the spectator in the work and a growing attention
towards the dynamic and active relationship between public, work and
surroundings. The work only takes on life when this is bestowed by the
participant, when it becomes part of the total
parangolé experience (Oiticica) in a happening that corresponds to the environmental kingdom (in the world of
attention to the environment). With this type of work Oiticica left the object
to one side to concern himself directly with the creation of a creative
perceptive behaviour in the spectator. The link to the transformation of the
above-mentioned creative reception is
evident. Nevertheless, the parangolé
permits the concept of a second level of architectural creation in Here whilst we walk. Oiticica finds a
direct relationship between the chromatic architecture of the body in movement
when dressed with the parangolé and
the organic construction of the shanty towns and other improvised architectures
such as the street markets or the open-roofed cardboard cubicles: all these are
essentially precarious, they are constructed without any prior rationality
directing their development and deployment in space; they are organised
following the logic of mere addition, of continuity in space and time, in a
relationship of adaptation to their environment. This latter is not only
conceived of as the classical architectonic context, composed of existing
buildings, but is also determined by the invisible
architecture composed by the trajectories of the walkers and the customs of
the inhabitants of the shanty towns.
This ephemeral and improvised spatiality thus acquires the organic
quality that characterises both the shanty town and the parangolé; this is an architecture that develops links with its
surroundings, described by Oiticica as imaginative-structural links. These are
“ultra-elastic” architectures “capable of establishing multidimensional
relations that emerge from them between perception and imagination, productive,
inseparable and mutually feeding off one another” (Oiticica 2007:297). This is
an architecture based not upon the construction of durable buildings, nor the
symbolic transformation of what is already there, but on the construction of
ephemeral forms, the creation of spaces that are not based on a preconceived
plan or faithful to a certain logic based on a rational distribution of space.
It is based on the immanent and emerging creation of spaces, without prior
design and formed through the medium of human movement, customs and the desires
of those who inhabit them. Naturally this space is produced within a dialectic
relationship with the environment, adapting to it in an improvised way and
transforming it as the emerging space imposes itself.
A similar type
of construction of space is at work in Here
whilst we walk. Through walking a construction of space takes place which,
in accordance with an immanent dialectic relationship between subject and
milieu, functions like a reflection of the milieu in which it is inspired and
within which it is located. The participants are within the confines of the
elastic band without any orientation plan or instructions, without a
preconceived plan of a possible route. Ciríaco and Sonnberger begin to walk and
with this movement the elastic band is stretched and obliges the participants
to move in the direction they have chosen; however, once this has been
established, a participant can put up resistance and head towards an object or
in a chosen direction along the way, thus in a sense obliging his companions to
alter the route. Accordingly within the elastic band positions change continually,
depending on the attention given to the surroundings or the faster or slower
pace of each the participants. The formation of the group also changes
according to the obstacles and characteristics of the route travelled,
constantly modifying itself in adaptation to the surroundings, constructing its
route depending on the accidents and mishaps along the way. In this process of
continuous change within the confines of the elastic band, the trajectories of
the walkers produce in an emerging form a spontaneous choreography composed of
movements such as giving way, brief stops, interchanging positions and various
stumbles.
This allows
for an emerging state of choreographic creation of space arising out of the sum
of the distinct trajectories, the ephemeral complicities between the
participants. The group in its movement within the elastic band manages its
trajectories, finding itself like a collective group in movement in a continual
self-structuring process and which is constructed by the mere logic of
addition. Movement within the band is governed by the same generative laws that
cause the chaotic and labyrinthine dynamics of the urban space: constant
circulation, transience, self-regulation, lack of determination, continuous
interchange, instability and precariousness of relations, locating
difficulties, ambivalence with one’s individual route and the provisional
nature of one’s own position, among others. These organisational principles
constitute a reflection or metaphor of the space (exterior) they travel
through, governed by accident and the unforeseen, by ephemeral collective
groupings, continual micro contacts generated by such a simple structure as
walking. In this way the walking group of Here
whilst we walk functions as a reflection of the urban concept in the
dialectic relationship between subject and setting: structurally it reproduces
the same behavioural patterns, the same principles of chaotic, labyrinthine,
unforeseeable, and unpredictable composition: it serves as a reflection on a
small scale, while at the same time physically adapts to it, to spatiality
which serves as its constitutional model.
The walking group adapts to the context, while creating its own
spatiality, generated by means of a dialectic balance between interior and exterior,
between the creation of a form of its own and that of adapting to the route
travelled.
This
spatiality generated within the elastic band thus signals a second level of
creation of space, of an ephemeral architecture that determines the city as
much as or more than its traditional architecture, comprised fundamentally from
the view point of urban design and the construction of buildings. On the other
hand it is interesting to note that this dialectic relationship with the
environment does not take place within the context of strict individuality, but
within the framework of a community project. In this sense Here whilst we walk assumes a social dimension, concerning itself
not only with mere aesthetic
values , but oriented by the deployment of a series of strategies and
resources, towards the setting in which it unfolds. In this way the band assumes a function beyond that of
containing the group together on their walk: on the one hand it permits the
emergence of a spatiality based on the same principles as those which govern
movement in the town; on the other hand it unites the walkers and the
individual discourses; the pedestrian
enunciations (Certeau) are assumed under the same identity, thus creating a
community. The elastic band around the participants
provides for an inside and outside, thus producing the feeling of a
group, maybe even an identity [...] in which the participants are at the same
time actors and spectators and who, like the men and women on the outside, each
group, if we can consider them as such, enjoys a particular sense of identity
and belonging (Ciríaco 2006).
The “being
together” of the participants and the creation of a community for the duration
of an hour and a half is also one of the central themes of the work. In this sense,
Here whilst we walk is linked to
relational aesthetics and therefore to the desire for the collective production
of feeling and in this particular case to the collective production of an
architecture that is paradoxically related to individuality, the projection of
the intimate world on the exterior geometry, as well as the creation of a
spatiality that is determined in the group. The central theme of the walk is to together walk through
the city: the movement is decided on communally, the perception of the
environment is created from “us”. This operation assumes an undeniable social
dimension, in that it is carried out collectively.²
After the parangolés the next stage in Oiticica’s
work is that of the appropriations that began in 1966 as a direct result of
this gradual and irreversible move towards context, thus linking up with the
first type of architecture mentioned, nomadic architecture. In this stage he
develops a new activity, walking through the urban landscape, defined as Delirium Ambulatorium.
In delirium ambulatorium,
meditation is guided by the body-foot: it is a passion-meditation-walking that
generates model labyrinths of topographies created in the heat of the workshop:
the same passion that directed me to move the pictorial field out of painting
towards space and to destroy the impoverished pictorialism of centuries of
walls [leading me] to the proposal of a new place-space, totally open to
creative exploration (Oiticica 2007:122)
By means of an
intervention as ephemeral as a walk he discovers the ready-made artistic
passable world, and with it (as Allan Kaprow also proposed in his Education of the un-artist) the capacity
of the imagination to transform the world as well as the urban environment as a
space open to creative exploration and symbolic and cultural transformation.
These principles are to be found in the collective assimilation and
interpretation experience of space through the movement of walking proposed by
Ciríaco and Sonnberger with Here whilst
we walk: there is no object or piece (choreography) providing a watershed
giving access to that other sphere of aesthetic experience, it is the spectator
who finds himself relaunched into his own world that normally surrounds him to
perceive it in a renewed manner. In this way he assumes an ambivalent position,
as participant and at the same time as an object of the attention of the second
level spectator: the city dweller. For its part, the object or the work as an
entity disappears and installs itself in the conscience of the spectator,
altering his routine perception, which turns again to his environment
projecting his sensibility and transforming it. Through this movement one
discovers in the spectator that very same potential to develop an active and
aesthetic relationship with his environment, of simultaneous assimilation and
interpretation of space, all of which achieved through the medium of movement:
walking.
_____________________________
Notes
¹ Parangolé constitutes a key question in
the development of his work; as he himself indicates, it represents a
culminating point in his lifelong investigation, which began with painting and
concludes in a total liberation of the performance. It represents the end of a
progressive development displayed from the anti-object, through the transobject
to the parangolés, these structural-imaginative works as describes by their
author.
² This tendency towards
greater concern for the social and collective dimension in his projects can be
clearly seen in the piece in which Ciríaco and Sonnberger are currently
working, Neighbours, based on the idea of the neighbourhood as a localised
geographical community.
