performing inscribed trajectories: a play in walks
site-reflective artistic research, book publication, scripted walks, collective archive, July 2022
released and performed at International performing arts festival Baltoscandal 2022
written-walked by Bohdana Korohod and Daria Khrystych
online version is for information purposes only, the book is meant to be viewed and used in printed format:
In March 2022 Bohdana Korohod and Daria Khrystych have been invited to participate in the project “Anthropologies of Space” as a part of the International performing arts festival Baltoscandal 2022 which biannually takes place in Rakvere, Estonia.
Rakvere happened to be one of Estonian cities with the biggest influx of the war refugees from Ukraine. The city dynamics and the purposes of many of its public spaces have changed. However, neither those events nor changes seemed to be reflected upon in the context of Baltoscandal. Usually, during the festivals with international guests and participants the cities with its residents turn into mere backgrounds. To give presence and voice to the city itself, to acknowledge the efforts of its many actors’ self-organization in supporting Ukrainian refugees, the artists focused on the research of the affective landscape of Rakvere during March-June 2022.
Through walking interviews, they have explored the city together with its different residents, from locals to newly arrived Ukrainians, to its natural inhabitants such as boulders. The artists have worked with walking methodologies, practices of dérive, mapping and dramaturgy of care in their site-reflective research.
As a result, they have composed three scripted walks which act as condensed affective perceptions of the city. In collaboration with the sound artist Sander Saarmets music compositions were created to accompany each of the walks. The major characteristic of these walks is that they are supposed to be read while walking in the city of Rakvere.
To ensure that the work is accessible by the city’s diverse residents and visitors, each walk in the book is written in English, Estonian and Ukrainian. The book can be owned for free or borrowed from the library and returned later depending on the audience’s decision.
Sound compositions are available through:
http://walk-with.elektron.art/
http://walk-with.elektron.art/
During the book’s presentation at Baltoscandal, a space of collective archiving was created. Either in the library or in the theatre’s park, a spectator could take a book by leaving a reflection upon the city answering to the question, “How does Rakvere make you feel today?” The audience could choose either to independently go through the whole process following hints left in the space, or to approach the artists for a conversation instead. At the end of the festival more than 70 written reflections have been collected.
As of today, 100 more copies have been saved for the city library in Rakvere and it is possible to get your own copy or to borrow it from there and set on a walk-with Care, Not / Belonging and Stillness.
