A peripatetic lecture, 75 min
Thursday, 28 Sep, at 16.30
City Hall

Registration required

Photo: Matjaž Rušt, arhiv CONA.

Walking through Ljubljana, wondering about the sound walks, rethinking purpose, cause and meaning of walking as an art practice. When Honoré de Balzac published his extraordinary study, The Theory of Walking, in 1833, he wondered why no one had seriously studied the phenomenon of human walking before him. “Isn’t it curious,” he writes, “that ever since man has walked, no one has asked why he walks, or how, or if he could improve his walking, or what he does when he walks, whether one could not impose his walking, change or scrutinize it […].” We too will address these questions as we walk from Ljubljana Town Hall to Cukrarna, borrowing from the ancient Greek philosophers of the Peripatetic School the idea of developing thought in movement.

Still, we will center on human walking, considered in anthropology a specific body technique, and in particular on selected examples of walking performances – performative events conceived by their protagonists as a walk for themselves (the performers) or the spectators, who have thus become co-performers and co-participants. Suppose the weather is fine and we keep safe from technical challenges.

In that case, we will also look at some static or moving visuals of the selected walking performances to better understand how and where they were performed. Surprises along the way, which will take about an hour, are not excluded. However, the lecturer – this time in the role of a peripatetic guide through Ljubljana’s squares and streets – will make sure they are enjoyable.