Fina Miralles. "Relacions. Relació del cos amb elements naturals en accions quotidianes. Caminar", 2020
Itinerary
10 contents
10 contents
To Walk Across
When the act of walking becomes an artistic practice.
To wander means to move around a space or a place in all its extension and length. One of the oldest forms of wandering, and the most revolutionary nowadays, is the act of walking.
Ever since Francesco Petrarch, and later Matsuo Basho, Jean Jacques Rousseau, Henry David Thoreau and more recently Simone de Beauvoir, the act of walking has been the subject of endless philosophical, sociological and aesthetic analyses that question how such an ordinary activity can at the same time be so revolutionary and transformative.
The Grand Tour, the influence of Romantic literature and the figure of the flâneur are some of the key precedents that can help us understand how the act walking resulted, around the mid-twentieth century, in various artistic practices such as Walking Art, the method known as dérive, closely linked to Situationism, and to other performative practices.
This itinerary around various works in the MACBA Collection addresses how the act of walking, seen as an artistic practice, can be interpreted as a ritual, a political gesture, as a way of generating a new urban cartography, or as a way for human beings to further understand their own nature.
As the French sociologist David le Breton points out: ‘For me, walking is to find my own roots in the world.’
*Le Breton, David. Elogio del caminar. Siruela, Madrid.
![[5884_001_pub / Imatge] Relacions. Relació del cos amb elements naturals en accions quotidianes. Caminar](https://d2zy2h1755x359.cloudfront.net/public/DigitalAsset/288519/396d59d0a0a90882925e997416c27d4b/full/large/0/default.jpg)
Relacions. Relació del cos amb elements naturals en accions quotidianes. Caminar
1975/2020
Fina Miralles
Relacions. Relació del cos amb elements naturals en accions quotidianes. Caminar. Fina Miralles, 1975/2020 (Relationships. The Body’s Relationship with Natural Elements in Everyday Actions. Walking)
The group of photographs entitled Relacions (Relationships) documents two series of actions. Relació del cos amb elements naturals (The Body’s Relationship with Natural Elements, 1975) is a sequence of images that shows Miralles’ body being gradually covered by a range of natural elements until it is completely enveloped, as if she were making an entire dress of stones, soil, grass or straw. These actions demonstrate the connections between the human body and the various materials. Relació del cos amb elements naturals en accions quotidianes (The Body’s Relationship with Natural Elements in Everyday Actions, 1975) consists of images that examine some of our actions in our everyday lives: breathing, looking, washing, eating, strolling or smoking.
The images constitute a kind of photographic record or diary, a catalogue of daily actions selected by Miralles. What acts do we denote in our day-to-day routines? What are the actions that we would connote? Are breathing, looking, eating, strolling or smoking a way of talking about our lives?
The group of photographs entitled Relacions (Relationships) documents two series of actions. Relació del cos amb elements naturals (The Body’s Relationship with Natural Elements, 1975) is a sequence of images that shows Miralles’ body being gradually covered by a range of natural elements until it is completely enveloped, as if she were making an entire dress of stones, soil, grass or straw. These actions demonstrate the connections between the human body and the various materials. Relació del cos amb elements naturals en accions quotidianes (The Body’s Relationship with Natural Elements in Everyday Actions, 1975) consists of images that examine some of our actions in our everyday lives: breathing, looking, washing, eating, strolling or smoking.
The images constitute a kind of photographic record or diary, a catalogue of daily actions selected by Miralles. What acts do we denote in our day-to-day routines? What are the actions that we would connote? Are breathing, looking, eating, strolling or smoking a way of talking about our lives?
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Francis Alÿs. Walking Distance from the Studio
“Walking is not a medium, it’s an attitude. It favours inspiration, it is conducive to the development of ideas, and it is also highly accessible” said Francis Alÿs (Antwerp, Belgium, 1959) at the presentation of the exhibition on his work at MACBA in 2005.
In the purest tradition of Baudelaire’s stroller or flâneur, Alÿs uses walking as the chief tool in his creative process. His journeys through downtown Mexico City, where he has lived since the eighties, have given rise to innumerable reflections, encounters, anecdotes and confabulations that he has then transformed into artistic projects – many of them ephemeral – that are particularly illustrative of the anthropological, political and social contradictions inherent in the urban environment.
The exhibition Walking Distance from the Studio included a wide selection of works since 1995, including installations, videos, paintings, sculptures, drawings, photographs, slide projections and documentation.
“Walking is not a medium, it’s an attitude. It favours inspiration, it is conducive to the development of ideas, and it is also highly accessible” said Francis Alÿs (Antwerp, Belgium, 1959) at the presentation of the exhibition on his work at MACBA in 2005.
In the purest tradition of Baudelaire’s stroller or flâneur, Alÿs uses walking as the chief tool in his creative process. His journeys through downtown Mexico City, where he has lived since the eighties, have given rise to innumerable reflections, encounters, anecdotes and confabulations that he has then transformed into artistic projects – many of them ephemeral – that are particularly illustrative of the anthropological, political and social contradictions inherent in the urban environment.
The exhibition Walking Distance from the Studio included a wide selection of works since 1995, including installations, videos, paintings, sculptures, drawings, photographs, slide projections and documentation.
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María Teresa Hincapié: If This Were a Beginning of Infinity
Focusing on the body, the artistic practice of this artist managed to transform routine actions into symbolic acts and bring the art of performance close to the sacred.
María Teresa Hincapié: If This Were a Beginning of Infinity is the first exhibition dedicated to the practice of María Teresa Hincapié (1954–2008), a Colombian artist specialising in what we might call ‘the poetics of everyday life’ in performance, transforming routine actions into symbolic acts to create a methodology in her practice.
Hincapié had a unique definition of performance, which she called ‘training’. Eschewing any specific categorisation, her practice oscillated between life, creation in motion and a search for mysticism.
Focusing on the body, the artistic practice of this artist managed to transform routine actions into symbolic acts and bring the art of performance close to the sacred.
María Teresa Hincapié: If This Were a Beginning of Infinity is the first exhibition dedicated to the practice of María Teresa Hincapié (1954–2008), a Colombian artist specialising in what we might call ‘the poetics of everyday life’ in performance, transforming routine actions into symbolic acts to create a methodology in her practice.
Hincapié had a unique definition of performance, which she called ‘training’. Eschewing any specific categorisation, her practice oscillated between life, creation in motion and a search for mysticism.
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Stanley Brouwn. works 1960-2005
The retrospective on stanley brouwn (Paramaribo, Surinam, 1935) held at the MACBA in 2005 was the first exhibition ever held in Spain on the work of this Netherlands-based conceptual artist.
In the early seventies brouwn went to morocco and algeria via belgium, france and spain. each day he carefully noted the number of footsteps he took in each of the countries. the result is the work from march 18 until april 18, 1971, i defined my total number of footsteps each day by means of a handcounter, which comprises an inventory of his steps on little cards. this project is the first in a series of works in which brouwn notes the distances covered during a certain period in a certain country or city while the total amount of steps in a number of countries are recorded. next to these works in which he actually records distances covered there are works in which he constructs and analyses distances, like those in which the distance of 1 metre is described in relation to distances ranging from 1 km to 1 mm.
The retrospective on stanley brouwn (Paramaribo, Surinam, 1935) held at the MACBA in 2005 was the first exhibition ever held in Spain on the work of this Netherlands-based conceptual artist.
In the early seventies brouwn went to morocco and algeria via belgium, france and spain. each day he carefully noted the number of footsteps he took in each of the countries. the result is the work from march 18 until april 18, 1971, i defined my total number of footsteps each day by means of a handcounter, which comprises an inventory of his steps on little cards. this project is the first in a series of works in which brouwn notes the distances covered during a certain period in a certain country or city while the total amount of steps in a number of countries are recorded. next to these works in which he actually records distances covered there are works in which he constructs and analyses distances, like those in which the distance of 1 metre is described in relation to distances ranging from 1 km to 1 mm.
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The walking cities of Jordi Colomer
Bucharest, Osaka, Brasilia and Barcelona. In the early 2000s, Jordi Colomer organised a brief, impossible journey in which the buildings of different cities on the planet abandoned their architectural immobility and began to travel. With the help of the artist Idroj Sanicne (aka Jordi Encinas), he produced some scale models of buildings and took them for a walk. The result is a frieze of desires and an allegory of the relationship of humans to the environment at a time when, like today, new relationships with our surroundings need to be invented.
Bucharest, Osaka, Brasilia and Barcelona. In the early 2000s, Jordi Colomer organised a brief, impossible journey in which the buildings of different cities on the planet abandoned their architectural immobility and began to travel. With the help of the artist Idroj Sanicne (aka Jordi Encinas), he produced some scale models of buildings and took them for a walk. The result is a frieze of desires and an allegory of the relationship of humans to the environment at a time when, like today, new relationships with our surroundings need to be invented.
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En silencio pero juntos. Performance de María José Arjona. (In Silence but Together. A performance by Maria José Arjona)
Maria José Arjona’s performance In Silence but Together understands María Teresa Hincapié’s practice as a wandering that, on one hand, precipitates the construction of presence and, on the other, delves into duration, silence, and time as strategies of resistance.
The project develops relevant aspects—though sometimes not very visible—of Hincapié’s practice and life. In the artist’s words: “It is an attempt to rescue the pedagogical facet and turn to simple actions, such as walking or breathing, as movements of resistance in times when the sacred and the body itself are in crisis.”
In Silence but Together is a map of pilgrimage and choreographic articulation. It is about drawing paths and at the same time broadly disseminating the knowledge that Hincapié wanted to share as a pedagogue. The choreographic becomes the intention to create something collective, a sum of bodies and actions that overflow the museum but include it as a space for crossing and social experimentation.
Maria José Arjona’s performance In Silence but Together understands María Teresa Hincapié’s practice as a wandering that, on one hand, precipitates the construction of presence and, on the other, delves into duration, silence, and time as strategies of resistance.
The project develops relevant aspects—though sometimes not very visible—of Hincapié’s practice and life. In the artist’s words: “It is an attempt to rescue the pedagogical facet and turn to simple actions, such as walking or breathing, as movements of resistance in times when the sacred and the body itself are in crisis.”
In Silence but Together is a map of pilgrimage and choreographic articulation. It is about drawing paths and at the same time broadly disseminating the knowledge that Hincapié wanted to share as a pedagogue. The choreographic becomes the intention to create something collective, a sum of bodies and actions that overflow the museum but include it as a space for crossing and social experimentation.
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![[2223_001_hist / Imatge] Slow Angle Walk (Beckett Walk)](https://d2zy2h1755x359.cloudfront.net/public/DigitalAsset/203298/fb45cfdbcaac6bfeedd32b89514b7358/full/large/0/default.jpg)
Slow Angle Walk (Beckett Walk)
1968
Bruce Nauman
Slow Angle Walk (Beckett Walk). Bruce Nauman, 1968
A fixed camera turned on its side records Nauman repeating for nearly an hour a laborious sequence of body movements inspired by passages in works by Samuel Beckett that describe similarly repetitive and meaningless activities. Hands clasped behind his back, he kicks one leg up at a right angle to his body, pivots forty-five degrees, falls forward hard with a thumping noise, extends the rear leg again at a right angle behind, and begins the sequence again.
As in many of his fixed-camera film and video works, parts of Nauman’s body disappear from the frame as he moves close to the camera; occasionally, he walks off-screen completely while the sound of his footsteps continues on the sound tracks. –www.eai.org
A fixed camera turned on its side records Nauman repeating for nearly an hour a laborious sequence of body movements inspired by passages in works by Samuel Beckett that describe similarly repetitive and meaningless activities. Hands clasped behind his back, he kicks one leg up at a right angle to his body, pivots forty-five degrees, falls forward hard with a thumping noise, extends the rear leg again at a right angle behind, and begins the sequence again.
As in many of his fixed-camera film and video works, parts of Nauman’s body disappear from the frame as he moves close to the camera; occasionally, he walks off-screen completely while the sound of his footsteps continues on the sound tracks. –www.eai.org
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Maja Bajevic
Maja Bajevic was born in Sarajevo. The wars of the former Yugoslavia have left their mark on her work, which often conceal a significant element of denouncement of the atrocities committed there, as in the video Green, Green Grass of Home.
In the words of the artist: “In this work, carried out in collaboration with Emanuel Licha, I appear in a large meadow whilst I give a description of my apartment in Sarajevo, where my parents, and later on I, lived before the war in the former Yugoslavia. Since then, the flat has been occupied by people who are now refusing to move out. […] I have not returned to my apartment in over 10 years but, in my filmed description, I try to remember it in great detail and I move through the field as if I was wandering through it: I go from one room to another, describing them and telling stories about them. […] In the same way as we occupy our home, it also lives in us. We identify with specific places and these mark our lives. With the disappearance of these places, we also lose everything that we lived through in them.”
Maja Bajevic was born in Sarajevo. The wars of the former Yugoslavia have left their mark on her work, which often conceal a significant element of denouncement of the atrocities committed there, as in the video Green, Green Grass of Home.
In the words of the artist: “In this work, carried out in collaboration with Emanuel Licha, I appear in a large meadow whilst I give a description of my apartment in Sarajevo, where my parents, and later on I, lived before the war in the former Yugoslavia. Since then, the flat has been occupied by people who are now refusing to move out. […] I have not returned to my apartment in over 10 years but, in my filmed description, I try to remember it in great detail and I move through the field as if I was wandering through it: I go from one room to another, describing them and telling stories about them. […] In the same way as we occupy our home, it also lives in us. We identify with specific places and these mark our lives. With the disappearance of these places, we also lose everything that we lived through in them.”
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Theory of the Dérive and other situationist writtings on the city. Several authors
This publication supplements the catalogue Situacionistas. Arte, política, urbanismo. The Situationist International (1957–72) pursued new forms of collective action and methods of agitation that would lead to the transformation of the urban environment. Since then, their revolutionary reflections have continued to play a fundamental role in politics and art. This publication offers a selection of texts and manifestos that focus on unitary urbanism and the dérive. Theory of the Dérive reflects on ways of seeing and experiencing urban life within the broader context of ‘psychogeography’, using urban mapping as a tool for the organisation of unités d’ambience (unitary ambience) that can create a new social fabric based on emotional maps of subversion or ‘psychogeographic maps’.
This publication supplements the catalogue Situacionistas. Arte, política, urbanismo. The Situationist International (1957–72) pursued new forms of collective action and methods of agitation that would lead to the transformation of the urban environment. Since then, their revolutionary reflections have continued to play a fundamental role in politics and art. This publication offers a selection of texts and manifestos that focus on unitary urbanism and the dérive. Theory of the Dérive reflects on ways of seeing and experiencing urban life within the broader context of ‘psychogeography’, using urban mapping as a tool for the organisation of unités d’ambience (unitary ambience) that can create a new social fabric based on emotional maps of subversion or ‘psychogeographic maps’.
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![[3779_001_pub_l / Imatge] 3779_001_pub_l.jpg](https://d2zy2h1755x359.cloudfront.net/public/DigitalAsset/9e428a59-e3f9-4021-b9f1-0f181a756f7e/5ed838358b32f4d54693408ac3456708/full/large/0/default.jpg)
Guide psychogéographique de Paris: discours sur les passions de l’amour: pentes psychogéographiques de la dérive et localisation d’unités d’ambiance
1957
Guy Debord
GUIDE PSYCHOGÉOGRAPHIQUE DE PARIS: DISCOURS SUR LES PASSIONS DE L’AMOUR: PENTES PSYCHOGÉOGRAPHIQUES DE LA DÉRIVE ET LOCALISATION D’UNITÉS D’AMBIANCE. Guy Debord, 1957
Psychogeographic Guide of Paris. Discourse on the Passions of Love. Psychogeographic Descents of Drifting and Localisation of Ambient Unities
Psychogeographic Guide of Paris. Discourse on the Passions of Love. Psychogeographic Descents of Drifting and Localisation of Ambient Unities
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Other works you can consult in the Archive.
03 results
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![[A13723 / Imatge] A13723.jpg](https://d2zy2h1755x359.cloudfront.net/public/DigitalAsset/11350-85519-a13723/c239179ffb04e3b9575f4bd6c5c45633/full/large/0/default.jpg)