Walk May Talk is a program looking at different aspects of walking as an artistic practice through a series of talks and walks, screenings, interactive performances, workshops and walkshops. It aims to create a space for exploration, discussion and inspiration in dealing with different issues through walking. Initiated and co-curated by Eylem Ertürk and Bernd Rohrauer, the first program of Walk May Talk was organised in collaboration with the University of Applied Arts Vienna throughout May 2019. The program presented experiences and reflections on identity and queer perspectives in public spaces, collective political movements of bodies, the science and artistic practice of strollology as well as different perceptions of walking in real and virtual spaces. It was accompanied by a space for research on walking, including selected books, articles and links to online resources at the Angewandte Library. Resources include different researches, practices and approaches about walking as an urban, artistic and political action.
Walk May Talk 2019 @ Social Design Studio and Angewandte Library, University of Applied Arts Vienna, 6-31 May 2019
Readings on Walking
Reading Room | 6-31 May 2019
Angewandte Library, University of Applied Arts Vienna
The space for research on walking includes selected books, articles and links to online resources in the Angewandte Library. Resources include different researches, practices and approaches about walking as an urban, artistic and political action. The reading room is open for on-site research throughout May during the opening hours of the Library.
How Discoverers Discover
Talk by Gerhard Lang | 7 May 2019
Social Design Studio, University of Applied Arts Vienna
In this performative talk, the artist gives an insight into the field of study of strollology or promenadology, founded by the sociologist, economist and philosopher Lucius Burckhardt. Burckhardt adopted the perspective of the stroller in formulating his criticisms of prevailing automobile-centric planning practices and used strolling as a pedagogic approach. The talk describes the context in which strollology took place; including actions, interventions and strolling practice in the society, the art field predating strollology. The final part of the talk focuses on strolling practice and interventions since the field of strollology disappeared from the university curriculum upon Burckhardt‘s retirement.
On Bodies and Their Collective Moves
Walking Seminar by Elke Krasny | 8 May 2019
Meeting point: Mariahilferstraße-Rahlstiege 1060 Vienna
Along with this walking seminar, Elke Krasny shares historical and contemporary texts related to bodies and their collective moves. Reproductive rights, health rights, labour rights, rights to education, rights to vote, rights to work… Who were those who marched for those rights? How did they organise politically? How did they move collectively? The walking seminar seeks to practice walking, thinking and reading collectively while moving in public space. Such a practice is performative and commemorative. Participants reflect on what it means to remember past marches and strikes, as they again take place today addressing the contemporary condition of multiple crises.
Shared Walks
within #kommraus by Eylem Ertürk and Bernd Rohrauer | 17 May 2019
Meeting point: Favoritenstraße-Johannitergasse 1100 Vienna
Shared Walks is an initiative that creates encounters by walking in public space. It connects people to walk together, initiates social interactions and creates possibilities for the appropriation of space and participation in cities. Participants walk together in pairs, collect and share observations, impressions, thoughts, feelings, memories, stories, associations etc, and map the neighbourhood from different perspectives. 30 types of walks in the card set propose minor changes to the way we walk normally. Shared Walks participants have the chance to walk with visitors, neighbours and professionals working in the area.
© Rosana Cade, C.Cauchi, C.Nolan
2019 © Shared Walks
Walking:Holding
Film Screening and Talk by Rosana Cade | 22 May 2019
FLUX 2, University of Applied Arts Vienna
What does your town look like from someone else’s perspective? What’s it like to hold hands with a complete stranger and walk through the city centre? Performance art and mobile technology converge in Walking:Holding, a meditative documentary by Rosana Cade, Claire Nolan and Charlie Cauchi, that journeys through urban landscapes exploring identity and intimacy in public space with a focus on LGBTQ+ experiences. This film is a response to Glasgow based artist Rosana Cade’s award-winning interactive performance, which invites audience members to embark on a carefully designed route through a town whilst holding hands with a series of different local participants. The screening is followed by an artist talk online.
Walk-on-the-wild-side: Beyond Walking in Virtual Spaces
Talk by Martina Menegon | 23 May 2019
Social Design Studio, University of Applied Arts Vienna
Travelling on foot is the most intuitive way of locomotion, yet walking in the Virtual can be a traumatic experience. Virtual characters are often driven into unavoidable obstacles, their motions being challenged and resulting in dramatic moments. Working with the Virtual as an artistic medium often embraces digital artefacts and imperfections that arise during the creational and computational process. In her talk, the artist looka at the virtual bodies in motion, the avatars as perceivable entities as well as walkable artistic Virtual Realities, in which imperfections trigger a sense of “intellectual uncertainty”, where the boundaries between “real” and virtual, animate and inanimate, human and non-human get blurred.
Walking Simulator
Live Online Performance and Talk by Leonhard Müllner and Robin Klengel
28 May 2019 | Social Design Studio, University of Applied Arts Vienna
The work “Operation Jane Walk” by Robin Klengel and Leonhard Müllner examines the innovative potential of walking in computer games. In this performance, the hostile military environment of a shooter-game is misappropriated for an architectural tour. The gameplay is reduced to walking and instead of a martial action in a city as the backdrop of the game, it becomes the narrative foreground. The Walking Simulator leads into the warlike worlds of computer games and shows ways of desertion from digital war zones. Artists discuss case studies and test tactics of resisting and refusing to command, especially in the context of walking.
Walking Narratives, Instant Tools
Workshop and Talk by Oliver Hangl | 28-29 May 2019
Social Design Studio, University of Applied Arts Vienna
Oliver Hangl is a performance/media artist and an urban activist. His work marks a consistent confrontation between the human and the environment, pushing the boundaries between physical and psychological spaces. In his talk, the artist presents a selection of his urban walks, rides and trails, with a focus on various implementations of narratives. In the workshop, Hangl proposes a short narration, by which participants are challenged to develop a set of “translations” from fiction into an uncontrolled field of action:reality – on streets or public spaces of Vienna. Hence, a variety of methods and approaches are implemented, followed by a final assessment of the process and outcomes.
Eylem Ertürk 