Walking As Practice WAP23 by WAP

WALKING AS PRACTICE WAP23 was a process-based residency during September-November 2023, where artists using walking as a method delved into each others’ knowledges and things they encountered together at BKN, the Northern Stockholm Archipelago in Sweden. Fieldworks, share sessions and seminars were created jointly to locate and entangle structures, narratives and themes for walking. The residency formed a transformative, dynamic space for art that engaged with life and nature towards critical and poetic explorations, influenced by the immediate surroundings: the forest, lakes, sea and people living in the rural area. Processing how walking is interlocked in our artistic practices, this exposition represents a gathering of texts, visuals and audio from the walking art residency. The selected artists contributed with interdisciplinary practices, primarily drawing, photography, video, performance and dance. They worked both individually, in spontaneous constellations and in group sessions. The dissemination of the program took place in share sessions upon arrival of new artists - including dinners, open studios, walks, workshops etc. In addition, as the program unfolded, each artist developed their own exposition.

SHORT BIO

Inga Manticas is a visual artist living in Brooklyn, NY. Currently centered in drawing, their practice plays with the interactions between fantasy, mythology, and the natural landscape. Magical storytelling and fantastical imagery re-enchant natural places, thus blurring distinctions between material and spiritual conceptions of space. Engaging both animist and materialist philosophies, Inga's work reflects on economic-ecological conflicts in their immediate environment, while seeking an ethical and tightly-connected relation between human creation and the more-than-human world. They are interested in love, longing, mystery, loss, and imagination.

Recent works include Geography of My Ocean, a drawing installation of "mythical geography" that maps maritime folklore and superstition, and Home Town, a video essay about invisible and disappearing worlds. Outside of their studio practice, Inga works as a teaching artist at several institutions and schools throughout New York City. Inga holds a BA in American Studies and Visual Art from Columbia University, and has studied art history at the University of Havana.

PROPOSED WORK

While in residence at BKN, I will continue to investigate how to use drawing to represent numinous presences in the forest and the sea. I also intend to gather materials in the area to make small sculptures that accompany my drawings.

I am of Swedish heritage and grew up visiting Nynäshamn, Sweden with my family; returning to Sweden for a residency provides me with the opportunity to continue exploring connections between the folklore and the landscape of this place.

Studio: 3
Date: September 2-30
https://inga-manticas.squarespace.com

Inga Manticas was on a general AiR BKN residency. However, they decided to join WAP as a CO-WALKER for the month of September.

The video My Home Town was selected to be part of BKN booth at Supermarket Art Fair 2024

INGA MANTICAS

This video documents a walk that I led with the WAP group, centered around the idea of enchanted space. Drawing from common fairytale tropes about the natural world, I invited the walkers to consider their bodies' interaction with the forest in order to act out notions of an infinite path, a land spirit's curse, secret messages from birds, and spell-lifting rituals.

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