 Winter closes in on refugees crossing Europe, tragic events in Paris and under reported terror attacks elsewhere force us to think about the world we live in and the world we want to live in. Thinking about making the walk in Germany, refugees and the resonances we want to generate. In researching and planning the walk in Germany one of our key contacts has been Peter Jackson. Peter was on National Service in Lower Saxony in the 1950’s when the area was receiving displaced people, refugees, caught up in the massive post war migration and housing them in the same buildings that had been used during WW2 for forced labour. Whilst there Peter came across the Jewish women's camp at Ovelgönne, ironically named ‘Walsdeslust’. Layer upon layer of memory and history: last week Peter photgraphed a memorial to those refugees from parts of Germany that became Poland who had made their homes locally. Second generation and third generation refugees, survivors, witnesses, liberators, jailers, perpetrators...the memories mix, the stories intertwine like the routes on our map.  Peter saw the physical remains of the slave labour camp where Esther was held and from where the death march she survived started. More than a shadow on the map now, an old shed shrouded in weeds and memories, what traces might be here? He met with an old man who as a boy remembers the inmates and guards with guns.  On the site of the slave labour camp there is indeed a Garden Centre and it does indeed grow orchids. Somewhere in there to be unpicked is a motif and metaphor as powerful as the lion and the beehive on the Tate and Lyle’s Golden Syrup tin. Two walks, two stories of subjugation and appropriation: out of strength a certain sweetness, out of death a strange beauty.  In the face of blood and fear and bullets this is the time to be making gestures of love and solidarity; reminding ourselves of the values of internationalism and human rights. If we can do nothing else we can walk in witness. Esther was liberated from Belsen to Sweden to become a refugee, beginning another long journey into exile.
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A YEAR WALKING OUT ON ENCHANTMENT  A
An open invitation to join a walk: on foot, online or both. Join me on a monthly walk exploring enchantment, heritage and the body. A series of critical walks exploring ‘hidden’ heritage, walks to work, walks that were or are work, walks that make connections and resonate on human rights issues. I am currently experimenting with strategies to resist immersive romantic/arcadian walking practices. So rather than walking to commune with nature and all that involves I am interested in walking out of necessity or coercion, from walks to work to walks at gunpoint, the walks of refugees, the walks of those who have to. I am interested in developing a disenchanted walking practice, aware of enchantments but never totally immersed in them. I am not quite sure what that will be and my intention is to use the coming year to discover that, and I hope you will join me for some or part of that journey on foot or online or both. My walking practice is digitally connected and this invitation is open to those who may wish to engage online as well as those who would like to physically walk. I am particular keen to walk with those who would like to experiment with social media and social networking in this context. Walkers of all kinds welcome.
The first walk will be on Sunday 4 October, to experiment on and with the recently released National Trust walk from the City of Bath to Bathwick fields. email for further info. [email protected] Times, dates and reports live and other wise will be published across these platforms https://twitter.com/walknowlive @walknowlive on my sketch blog https://rswpost.wordpress.com/ and tidier reports eventually here:
A project in three phases: it begins with a challenge, memories and a line. Resonances.
The line of a Nazi Death March to Belsen transposed to Somerset. A walk about time and the land, exile and belonging, the drift of memory and forgetting, memorialising in an era dense with anniversaries. April 14-15 2015: A 2 day walk as close as possible to that line. Where the walk intersects the line, interventions. An intimate performative walk-in-witness exploring resonances from the 70th anniversary of the liberation of Belsen. July 13-19 An exhibition of documentation of documentation and new work at 44AD Gallery, Bath BA1 1NN February 2016: A performative walk-in-witness on the original death march route from slave labour camp to Belsen. 71 years later. Interventions. Resonances. The first phase is done and we gather our thoughts: First day of walking social media trails, more starting points, glimpses:
and via Social Hiking bringing on tweets from some other walkers:
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