es promeniert
a ramble through KSA Park
* from the script *
background
In 2012, Sadhyo Niederberger, the art representative of the Cantonal Hospital Aarau, invited me to realise an installation with prints of video stills on flags in the park (Alles wird gut - Schmerzgrenzen) and a performance (Alles wird gut - Parkbewegungen) as part of the exhibition «Schmerzgrenzen».
The 2012 performance took place in the pouring rain at the time. With a group of daring spectators who wanted to face the rain with me, I set
off on a course along the edges of the hospital grounds. I was also on the course with my eyes covered, the spectators had to navigate me
without touching me.
This performance laid the foundation for the script of the performance 'es promeniert' in July 2017. In 2016, Sadhyo Niederberger brought me together with Anne-Marie Lerjen and Marco Käppeli. We had never worked together before. It became clear quite quickly that we wanted to create a tour in which everyone, we the performers together with the audience-visitors, would take a more leisurely walk in order to open up and sharpen the senses, to experience peace and sounds and thus to be able to experience also the edges of the beautiful park.
scenario
It's raining. On the invitation it was announced that the event would not take place in case of heavy rain. One hour before, we in the team, this Dorothea Rust artist, Anne-Marie Lerjen walking artist, Marco Käppeli musician and the curator of KSA Sadhyo Niederberger, considered whether we should hold the event. Although it is not raining out of buckets, nor is it a fine rain that might disappear soon, we are uncertain. Finally, we agree not to carry out the whole plan, i.e. not to deposit the prepared panels, which are equipped with signs and images that could guide the spectators and also provide information about the context and history of the KSA as text, in the designated stations of the tour. We set out without them. However, we will ask the spectators to come along 'without words', to refrain from speaking while accompanying us.
Starting point is at building no. 60, the Eye Clinic: more than 30 spectators, some in rubber boots, raincoat and equipped with umbrellas, have arrived here. A welcome by Sadhyo Niederberger and a short information from us: the tour is also a performance and a performance is always a contract. In this case the contract between us three performers and the audience states that we will not speak, we will be silent throughout.
The three of us orientate ourselves towards each other: the walking artist with heavy weight bulks, two concrete blocks attached to her legs, the artist/dancer who explores the park area in terms of movement, i.e. blindfolded, and a musician who lets his instruments and found objects play in the park. Me blindfolded, I orientate myself to Marie-Anne's positions, I hear the grinding and rolling of her concrete blocks; I follow her or move around her. Marco Käppeli goes along for the time being, only to leave us later and us meeting him again at the Gaia sculpture (a work of art from the art collection of the Hospital im Park, which is an integral part of the park): he improvises on the metal surface with his various percussion mallets and also pebbles that he has brought along.
During about 1 ½ hours the visitors are part of the 'game'. They more or less follow the instructions and don't let themselves be tempted to 'small talk'. One viewer says afterwards, when the tour is over, that in the the beginning, the group would have looked like a procession, then everything would have become more and more loose and he could have gotten involved with the architecture and built facilities. Here and there he discovered hidden piles of wood, also plants and trees, which he would not have suspected here.
We have followed the course as we had planned it, but moved along its edges. A different gait has forced itself upon us; the senses have gradually adjusted to it, perhaps deviating from everyday life, opening up and even sharpening. Afterwards my hands and feet have felt wide awake and strangely 'bloated' from touching the terrain and different surfaces. How would all participants, every single one, have described their feeling, their perception after this tour