Title Walk: Österhamn to Simpnäshamn
Date: May 27th, 2024
Paricpating WAP artists:
Cliff Andrade
Bernadita Bennett
Vincent Stangl
Marina Pugina
John Schuerman
Ming
Shi Tou
Organizer: Bernadita Bennett and Cliff Andrade
CORE INFO
Walking artists: 7
Weather: Sun, light wind (@12-16 c)
Date: Monday, May 27, 2024
Duration: 1/2 day
Start: 09:22 BKN Buss to Österhamn
Arrival: 09:35
The walk took place on Björkö in Northern Stockholm Archipelago, Sweden
Other: no injuries, some challenge scrambling over rocks
Public Transportation:
Departure from BKN with bus 636 at 09:22.
Departure: Simpnäshamn 15.05
Arrival BKN 15:15
Post walk: Dinner Share Session at BKN @8 pm.
Program, instigator and navigator:Bernaditta Bennet and Cliff Andrade
May 27, 2024, I joined 6 other artists on a long, beautiful, and sometimes challenging walk along the rocky shores of the Baltic Sea. Cliff Andrade and Bernadita Bennett guided the way, artistic interventions, and our swim (plunge) into the icy waters.
We all moved at different rates and I was struck by the adjustments we each needed to make to remain a 'society'. Had we given in to pure self interest the group would have split up early on. But we stuck loosely together, keeping one another in sight. I found myself drifting from last to first, waiting for others or seeing others wait for me.
I felt the sea, stone, and forest. I felt the sublimation of individual wants -not easy, but necessary for us to stay together. The societal metaphor felt important to me. When self-interest is not reigned in, things start to break down. And I felt camaraderie. Thanks to Bernadita, Cliff, and bkn.bjorko.konstnod.
--John Schuerman
May 27, 2024, Bernardita and I had loosely planned a walk from Östersjö to Simpnäs. Me with the intention of asking everyone to walk to at least Rumshamn along the exposed shore. Bernardita with the intention of performing an 'intervention' on the site of one of our performances last year.
I planned the walk as I would for myself so that everyone could experience walking as I have to do it due to my health condition - early start and walking through the day and into the afternoon. As we gathered off the bus in Östersjö, I explained this to everyone, as well as the fact that we were going to walk along the newly exposed shore, exposed by the unusually low level of the water. I also told them they would be with me as I complete the final section of shore all the way round from BKN to here.
Again, even though I am not on my own this time, I find the focus required for the rocks, the constant assessment of the best path, meditative. Thought is silent. And when we pause and sit on the rock I stare at the the sea and the the sky and the granite and I stare and I stare and I try to sear this moment into my brain. The image of blues and greys. The emotions of calm, contentment and comaraderie. The feeling of the sun and wind on my skin. But it is fuitle. In a moment this moment will be the past, tomorrow a memory. And eventually, like Ernaux constantly reminds us, everything will disappear. But maybe that is not the point. Maybe the point is to generate that positive energy in the universe whilst you have the ability.
Later, in the sharing session, I was struck by how John would think about the walk as a metaphor for society. That even though we walked at different paces and at times spread out quite far, a shared sense of purpose and a feeling of care towards each other meant we made sure no one got left too far behind. And how had we been concerned soley with ourselves, the walk would never have worked. He talks about the utter absence of manmade noise when we stopped and listened. And about how he felt very present during Bernardita's water walk as he had to be so careful where he put his feet, feeling the resistance of the water against his legs.
And I tell him that this presence is what I feel on the exposed shore. The concentration required to navigate a path. The absence of thought. And Bernardita has the opposite experience. Of being so fearful of falling on the rocks (and smashing her teeth) that her mind is consumed with worry and anxiety. And we marvel at how an environment can engender such different responses. And discuss the experiences engendered by different paths. How the meditation is absent on a road or a well-trodden track - the path so easy that it is the mind that is free to wander.
The following night, in my bunk in a Stockholm hostel, I will wonder if this was my favourite walk of all.
-- Cliff Andrade
May 27, 2024, Cliff and I guided a collective walk throught the shore from Östersjö to Simpnäs. The first idea that came to my mind for activating this experience was to create a collective walk through the water. This is an exercise I did myself alone in the same beach last year, now this time the place where we landed to rest, after a challenging walk through the rocks. After a couple of hours crossing the sea coast we arrived to the white and soft sand of Rumshamn. Before engaging the group into the collective performance, I invited everyone to put in drawings or/and words this first part of the journey. My aim was also to create a solemne atmosphere before coming all together to the water. I was creating this space in time as I always miss during my walks a moment to sit and reflect in situ, a way to organize feelings in a concrete way in the sketching book due to the fear of forgetting or letting these sensations vanish. Some of these impressions were shared and I took photo of them to create an archive of the moment. It was for me a silent situation where we were not talking but somehow creating a dialogue as we were all sitted, resting and communing with the same activity.
Later on we did a short but conscious walk through the water, where some concentration was needed to resist the body of flow that means to move the legs in the aquous matter. A natural line of walking bodies was created, again communing in a collective situation as a group.
Bernardita Bennett
