Opening: Saturday December 7th
In my walks, I would fain return to my senses, says Henry David Thoreau. For him walking is not an instrument of contemporary productivity to get from one place to another or a form of exercise. Walking for Thoreau is wandering aimlessly, without a plan, a specific sensitive practice of connection with the environment and with oneself. This selection of videos, another chapter of The Walking Gaze, depicts this way of walking as the opposite of moving at great speed, travelling long distances in the shortest possible time or looking at what is signposted and pre-established on the road. The works gathered in this exhibition present a circular visual itinerary, from the eyes gazing at the sky to the gaze from the ground and, as a link in this loop, the normative frontal gaze is shown from the interruption and the pause. It is a way of running into features of the landscape, whether they are signs or qualities of the landscape itself. From different contexts, the images thread together walking as slowness
and aimless wandering and, most importantly, draw attention to an almost involuntary and unconscious action. Moving the legs, taking one step after another, becomes an act of expanding the body on surfaces, and the rhythm of walking is transformed into a specific rhythm of the mind.
Clarisa Appendino
image: Valentina Cordellino, Escena en campo abierto
