The Walk
With weights on her legs, her careful movement across the plain makes her look like the first woman on earth.
She alternates each foot on the ground, putting one foot in front of the other. I accompany her from a distance and mimic her moves while my view of her is continuously in motion. I try to remain outside of her purview when she turns around and looks at me.
„I think I would never retain my physical and mental health if I wouldn’t spend at least four hours a day (frequently it is even longer than that) wondering around in forests, hills and fields and leaving the mundane behind.” 1
„There are multiple reasons why I can not leave to Europe; first of all I would freeze to death; I am also accustom to a free and vagrant way of life; and last but not least is the fact that I don’t have a high position in the society. I will thus have to spent the rest of my days by roving, straining and languishing with a clear vision of my death” 2
1 Henry David Thoreau, The Walk
2 Arthur Rimbaud, A Letter to my Family
- NOTES TO WALKING Jelení Gallery00:00:03.253
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- At that time we lived close to each other00:00:10.194
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- and we'd hang out together all the time.00:00:14.258
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- We'd look at each other's works00:00:17.562
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- and talk about many things,00:00:20.852
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- such as the way conversations work:00:00:23.742
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- one person responds to the other00:00:27.037
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- but one of them is always quieter.00:00:30.374
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- And we also talked about walking00:00:33.499
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- but I don't know where it came from...00:00:36.499
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- I think it was in connection with walks00:00:39.825
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- because we often talked when walking.00:00:43.325
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- In such a situation,00:00:46.804
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- you just walk mechanically,00:00:49.304
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- without knowing where you're heading.00:00:53.088
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- And you don't even care.00:00:59.995
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- The important thing is the conversation.00:01:03.371
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- But the conversation is not there.00:01:09.872
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- You only left the background of it.00:01:13.273
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- Yes, that's right.00:01:17.038
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- We're just explaining how we got to work00:01:19.369
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- with the theme of walking.00:01:22.765
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- We also talked about things00:01:27.290
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- that can happen in life,00:01:30.290
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- about repetition and turning in circles...00:01:33.563
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- Also about the mechanical aspect00:01:39.176
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- of movements.00:01:42.304
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- This exhibition isn't only00:01:44.253
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- about putting one leg in front of the other.00:01:47.253
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- The Notes to Walking exhibited at Jelení00:01:56.257
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- focus a lot on the recurrence of the same,00:01:59.779
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- on mechanical repetition,00:02:04.807
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- and other things connected with walking.00:02:07.790
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- This is also reflected in the texts00:02:11.220
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- on the drum.00:02:14.720
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- Walking is also often mentioned in speech,00:02:17.656
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- the word "go" having so many meanings.00:02:21.045
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- The final result of these ideas00:02:24.405
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- is the video you can see in Karlín.00:02:27.117
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- It presents the motif of walking00:02:30.799
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- in a very straightforward way.00:02:34.145
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- It shows the mechanics of the movement.00:02:38.374
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- It's only about walking.00:02:41.868
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- Our aim was to create an illusion of space00:02:44.926
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- and to emphasize moments00:02:48.426
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- one usually doesn't notice when walking,00:02:51.426
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- like the perspective of the feet00:02:54.930
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- and the sound of footsteps.00:02:59.405