/// Claudio Zecchi ///: Sino alla fine del mare / Extreme Lands / Ramdom (Gagliano del Capo)

La vita è confusa, in continuo movimento

(Life is messy and moving all the time)

Immagine di copertina della residenza "Sino alla fine del mare", Courtesy Ramdom / Lastation

PRESENTAZIONE

Lastation, primo incontro, Photo Courtesy, Paolo Mele

QUADERNO DI CAMPO

(Un esercizio di Helena Cavalheiro, Urbanista / Ricercatrice dell'università di San Paolo - BRA)

I made the same exercise in the first person in such a big city like São Paulo (see Helena Cavalheiro http://performativepractices.blogspot.pt/p/practices-as-intersection-in-fragile_76.html).

Gagliano del Capo, the little town where the four artists did the same exercise, is 4000 inhabitants circa, maybe less than a São Paulo‘s neighborhood. They mostly know each other in person and the architecture is completely different. Sometimes almost absent!

The four artists were all foreign, for that means they all felt in the blinded position although after four months residency they know the town. Feeling blinded even using the eyes is a good contradiction and a good starting point. I guess.

Twenty minutes walk in Gagliano means periphery!!! A bit far from the center there is not so much to experience in terms of public places.

Proceeding as foreigner – in both conditions, blinded or not – in the periphery towards a destination they didn’t know meant: asking the locals for the right direction and, to some extent, forcing their privacy; couldn’t match a pre-determined image with the image of a specific portion of the town they supposed to be; inventing the path at each step.

This never happened in SP as I was guided by a local.

All the artists felt much comfortable in the blinded position. When guiding, they felt responsible for the other experience not very much in terms of attention for the blinded itself but more in terms of caring for the other experiencing the walk at its best.

What SP covered, Galliano made visible to the local’s eyes. Although people knew the artists were all foreign they never stopped them in the street asking the reason of their permanence in town. This happened during the exercise.

The anthropic relationship with the city was completely flipped and the four artists have been perceived as little grain in a perfect gear oil disturbing the daily routine.

Basically, the experience didn't help to create a different perception of the town (should I maybe tried to force them to be blinded for more days?) as it is so small but, what actually changed pretty much is the perception of them by the locals.

Concerning the senses: they all used in a different way in order to orient themselves according to their sensibility. I would say their artistic sensibility (who work with the sound, for example, used the hearing more than others).

(Questo breve resoconto è in inglese poichè parte di una e-mail (in parte editata) ad Helena Cavalheiro, in cui le raccontavo gli "esiti" dell'esercizio).