Berlin



To mark the twenty-year anniversary of defecting Poland in Florence, Italy (1988), and the Fall of the Berlin Wall, a Canadian visual artist, Kinga Araya, will make a special walking performance artwork, “Performing Exile.” Most walks would take place during the day and they can be performed with closed eyes, walking very slowly, backwards, standing still, while carrying special objects, artworks, and telling stories about cultural identity and personal displacement.

Starting on July 15, 2008, Araya will walk the entire length of the former Berlin Wall (160 km) with one or more people. She will walk every day for about 3 weeks and everybody is welcome to join the artist for a shorter or longer walk. Araya is looking for diverse forms of interactions with the walkers: artistic, linguistic, philosophical, and political. Every day would be planned so the participants would know where to meet the artist. During the performance the artist will record the walks to include the video, photo and audio material in the future publication.

THE POSSIBLE TOPICS FOR THE DISCUSSIONS DURING THE WALKS:

- Diverse aspects of social, cultural, and political tensions (i.e. exile and citizenship)
- Any personal experiences or stories about exile, immigration and displacement, the Berlin Wall, and
other walls
- Dichotomy of walking and standing still (impossibility of walking)
- The poetics and politics of performance art (any subject, it could be based on your art practice)

Please contact the artist directly at kinga.araya@ici-berlin.org to sign up for a walk or to receive further information.

Deadline is July, 10th 2008

For more details about Kinga Araya's work please visit: www.kingaaraya.com