In the frenzy of cities’ hectic streets, intimate and public gestures unfold silently everyday, from care to transaction and back. Unwritten stories of love, rage, memory and loss, these moments bring with them the strength of personal oral storytelling and its poetic, political resistance. In the aggressive waves of gentrification process that most metropolises in the global north are enacting, the homogenisation and privatization of public space are louder than ever, and contemporary art often works as an instrument at the service of this major capitalist project. In this chapter of Congregation, Marcher les murs, we have been thinking about autonomous revendicative actions in public space that often go unrecorded and work as a testament of the resistance against this homogenisation and privatisation, such as anti-authoritarian inscriptions on walls and facades, and political protests temporarily occupying public space. This project would like to reflect on these autonomous revendicate actions, exploring the potentiality artistic interventions to work as disruptions in space while promoting a call for contagious action.
Six artists were invited to perform, write, make an action for a trail in the streets of northern Paris, each intervention includes a trace left behind on the surfaces we inhabit. The walk will go from Saint-Ouen to La Chapelle, taking approximately 2 hours and a half including the performances and rest moments. The final congregation will be held at Jardin d’Éole where we will share food and drinks and an opportunity for anyone to read something out loud.
Artists included: Lucie Camous, marie-julie chalu, Puer Deorum, Gribaudiplytas, Dita Hashi, Eric Androa Mindre Kolo.
Photography by Hui Yu
Marcher les murs is part of Congregations; an itinerant project curated by Ludovica Bulciolu and Brenna Horrox.