Flutgraben #1
A walk without having met you
Dear you,
I try to keep this short and simple so you can read it before your walk.
Plan your walk route roughly so that you start from a calm surrounding with more nature – perhaps you have an access to a park, forest, seaside – and then advance to a noisier environment. Or then you can do it vice versa and advance from noise to calm.
Any time during the walk you can shift your attention to the repetitive motion you create with your stepping.
When you want shift your focus to the environment you are walking in. Observe different vibrations and oscillations you see, hear or sense. This can be anything you interpret as vibration or oscillation. You can shift between the auditory, visual and kinesthetic senses. If you want you can also pause at one point and stand still while sensing the vibrations and oscillations you are surrounded by.
When you are done with your walk and if you feel like write me a couple of lines about your walk. I’d love to hear from you.
I attach to my letter an image of a painting by Agnes Martin who has been very influential to my work. If you feel like checking her out, do so. Here is also a short podcast where she talks about her work and life.
https://soundcloud.com/guggenheimmuseum/agnes-martin-speaks-about-emotion-and-art
Love,
Milla
The Spring, Agnes Martin, 1958, at Dia Art Foundation
Flutgraben #2
The artist who disappeared into the desert
On the second edition I was working on a movement construction, which borrows from a music composition technique referred to as hocket, a rhythmic linear technique using the alternation of notes, pitches or chords. In medieval practice of hocket, a single melody is shared between two or more voices so that one voice sounds while the others rest. I was translating this into choreography and finally a conversation with one guest.
Adjusting to the other body
Letting the outside exist inside
Gestures, silence
Turning off the voice inside
Repetitions
Melody
Letting the melody appear in the body
Bass line
Vibrations
Getting closer to the same melody, sharing the melody with two bodies, three bodies, four bodies
We did five sessions with four, two, three, four and two people to experiment with hocket (one voice sounds while others rest) in movement. Bodies adjusting into other bodies, sharing a melody between them. And finally letting the outside exist inside once the melody of the bodies falls silent.
During the event in June I brought one guest on a walk and used hocket as a conversational tool.
Flutgraben #3
Terrain
Sharing the first steps of a research for Terrain.
Terrain is an immersive installation, which takes the spectator on a slow walk through a hybrid environment, which combines visual and auditory elements from nature and urban spaces. With the support of guides and a subtle route which balances stillness and action, taking time to stop, then moving on, getting lost and finding the way again, spectators move through the installation as were it a landscape. Terrain is created together with each visitor who are invited to walk, observe, rest, follow the traces in the space and leave their mark in it as well.
Rachel Carson: Silent Spring, 1962
Flutgraben #4
Walks and route directions with Ixchel, Jasna, Sergiu, Asaf, Clément, Sandra, Christina, Stella, Jared, Moritz and Milla.
Walk straight ahead about twelve steps.
Here in this old house you find me lying on a simple wooden bench in the courtyard, thinking about
where to go, where to bring you?
Take the first right when you go to the street. It will be loud and busy when you walk
by.
I follow you.
I see your steps. I imagine I can see your steps.
Wander around. Look at the ground, the earth and leaves and stones.
Fire is on. Smoke is fresh. Cold air is hugging us, close to each other trying to swallow the flames.
If you keep walking, in a few minutes you will reach a road, a small asphalt road, the
solitude of the walk will start, enjoy these moments of calm.
I walk, I walk, I walk.
People around me slowly disappear and it’s getting more quiet. Where is this path taking me?
Maybe a little stop if you have time?
If we don’t manage to plan to meet there, maybe we can hope to run into each other there. In the
memories and the future.
Here begins a more difficult part of the walk.
I am not there yet.
You start at this small circular place with a sculpture of two people under an
umbrella.
I walk a bit faster. I am excited.
You turn around and you go down.
Locals making fun of the tourists, sending them into dead-ends, over bridges that brought them in the opposite directions, into small and empty squares…
Here you will get lost.
I walk a lonely walk, through an empty world.
It’s very silent here.
The city from above.
The concrete becomes soft under your feet.
I am so happy you brought me here – I will come back in different seasons.
You will see an entrance, if you see it you are in the right way.
It was all planned, walking along with my hand holding the other behind my back, like someone in a
museum. I walked like that and it was clear.
About 70 steps in front of me is our destination.
When I reach a street that stops my walk I estimate that this could have been about 150 steps.
Stay as long as you like.
I would love to visit there again with you.
I will be there everyday, maybe even short.
You are there, in bed again.
Lets meet soon under the tree.
@ Jared Gradinger