Elsewhere [ongoing]
- What happens if you cannot arrive where you want to go? -
Since early 2021, performance-maker Susanne Soldan and I have combined our individual approaches to spatial navigation in order to engage with the notion of unreachable destinations. Through the creation and realization of ‘structured drifts’, we explore the potentials of what can happen when shifting focus away from the everyday journey. Following a certain structure that is broad enough to allow for intuition and surprise, pathways are found which lack a practical endpoint, yet include new access to (un)familiar places.
Whatever space and time mean, place and occasion mean more.
- Aaldo van Eyck
Walks to Elsewhere
A walking practice with variable duration where we set out to follow a route toward a destination impossible to reach. These destinations are selected based off landmarks or locations of special interest. It is important they are far enough away that one cannot possibly arrive there in the chosen timeframe. In the past years, we have taken walks toward a cafe in Helsinki (FI), a gallery in Rome (IT), a Trappist brewery in Chimay (BE), the Höckerlinienweg in Mettlach (DE), among others.
The performative format of Walks to Elsewhere forces a new perspective on distance traveled; an unreachable goal encourages a shift in how space and time are experienced, allowing a slowness to build as well as deeper impressions of the surroundings.
The Walks to Elsewhere score can be found here.
Field Notes from Elsewhere
This project is a playful, artistic critique of tourism and the motif of the postcard. Field Notes from Elsewhere places the focus on the unexpected, unique, and subtly spectacular nature of surroundings. Each postcard is written with instructions for a task on how to explore or experience your current location in a different or new way. These handmade postcards are sent via mail between ourselves.
The Field Notes from Elsewhere archive.
Researching Elsewhere
For one week in August 2024, we applied our Elsewhere practice to explore (un)familiar spaces in Berlin. Previously, our journeys in this project have taken us from a starting point moving out toward a destination. With this residency period, we started instead from peripheral points of the city and moved in toward center. This approach allowed us to begin at two of Berlin’s edge points unknown to us (i.e., Kladow and Karow), encountering elements along the way to be used in a performative map later created in an indoor studio space.
Material findings from Researching Elsewhere can be found here. Additional materials to be added soon.