About the Performance

In the evenings of the 21st, 22nd and 23rd of May the Pixelache Festival crowd is invited by the Austrian artist Brigitte Kovacs to participate in a dérive. During the blue hour (starting around 9 p.m.) three specific areas of Helsinki between Oranssi and Kontula will be explored by foot to experience the emotional effects different, non-digital environments can have on individuals and to establish new awareness for the traversed urban landscape. As opposed to our daily walks on predictable routes, the dérive will thereby focus on playful drifting, which will ultimately lead to chance encounters.

Hereby, the art project is conceptualised like a game, producing individual, tactile experiences and following predefined rules:

On each evening one art walk with one participant will take place in one of the locations. By registering beforehand (at least one week prior), the participant gets the email address of the artist and sends her a picture of their self. In reverse, they will get a photograph of the artist, the ‘rules of the game’ and a detailed map of the area, which should be traversed by foot.

Starting at 21:00 at a random spot within the marked area the participant should keep on walking within the arranged ‘field’ as long as they meet, coincidentally, the artist, who will be walking at the same time in the same area, or until sunset. Hereby it is up to chance if a ‘real-world’ encounter takes place and if the fifth wall is actually broken. 

Every time the artist/participant makes a turn, they are asked to make a photograph of their surroundings using the app mytracks (available for ios and android). Independently if artist and participant find each other, this record of movement is supposed to be sent to the artist on the following day in order to be presented as part of the project documentation. In case the artist and participant find each other, the participant gets a physical ‘remnant/relict’ of the artist’s walk and they are free to spend the night together according to their own wishes. If they don’t find each other, they may leave the marked area again, the remnant will become part of the documentation.

 

Timeline

The performance will span through the several days of the festival, with three events. The performance is free of charge, the performance is reserved for just one member of the audience.

 

/// BRIGITTE KOVACS ///  Walking Encounters  ///  Begining at Oranssi, Kaasutehtaankatu 11/20, 00540 Helsinki  (Limited to one participant per performance) /// 21.05. /// 21:00 - 22:00 ///

/// BRIGITTE KOVACS ///  Walking Encounters  ///  Begining at Herttoniemi Metro Station  (Limited to one participant per performance) /// 22.05 ///  21:00 - 22:00 ///

/// BRIGITTE KOVACS ///  Walking Encounters  ///  Itäkeskus  (Limited to one participant per performance) /// 23.05 ///  21:00 - 22:00 ///

 

About the Artist

 

Kovacs explores walking as an artistic practice and has been invited to Breaking the Fifth wall to tackle the urban and forested areas of Helsinki through her work as a cathartic alternative to the network society. Kovacs studied fine arts at the Royal Institute of Art Stockholm, the Academy of Fine Arts and the University of Applied Arts Vienna, where she also studied German philology. After her Graduation, she undertook curatorial training with the Generali Foundation (Vienna) and the Dia Art Foundation (New York City). In 2010, she was appointed assistant professor at the Institute of Contemporary Art at the Graz University of Technology, where she has been exploring and expanding contemporary artistic production through the application of theory, research and practice. In addition to her occupations as researcher, lecturer and curator, Brigitte Kovacs pursues an active artistic practice. Her site-specific, conceptual and often performance-based artworks aim to contribute to critical poetics in the visual arts.