With Teemu Takatalo we walked from Brussels to Istanbul during years 2007 and 2008. The experience of the land of Europe through walking was as essential as gathering material from the walking expedition. More photos…
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”Walking” entails the epistemological wonder of being, at the same time maximally personal and minimally subjective, Walking is: meeting a landscape on its own terms (and so making it your own), as well as conquering it step-by-step with your whole body (and so experiencing it as it is). Walking determines not just the content […], it also constitutes (the) form. Stylistically ”walking” ensures maximal presence – it means that you are present in toto[…], that you don’t hitch on the cheap with what you didn’t imagine yourself[…]. – Eelco Runia, about walking in W. G. Sebald’s novels.
The experience of walking from Brussels to Istanbul (2007-2008) was used as a tool to deconstruct (at least our) illusions of today´s Europe. We wanted to discover a disparate speed of being and experiencing – in order to uncover and question the images created by the fast culture of consuming i.e. cheap flights, quick holidays, new communication and different identities – European and national. The aim was to work simultaneously on political and aesthetic perceptions. Distance and discussion between the geopolitical center and the extreme of Europe Union were under our conscious research whereas the daily way of observing remained literally down to earth: under, in and around our walking feet.
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