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Short abstract:

Two 90-minute sessions: 1) Introduction and Amsterdam City walking decolonial workshop 2) Development of artistic methodologies, site specific gestures and final walking performance.

Abstract:

We have been developing walking interventions in multiple historical spaces that interrogate historical trauma. Prompted by the notion of Danse Macabre - an acknowledgment of mortality and the cadenced transience of nature - we are developing interrogative practices that address sites of colonial oppression and occupation via walking performances. Our decolonial methodologies are enhanced by site-specific gestures that hope to pose micro-challenges to paradigms of oppression by seeking human and human-more-than-human solidarities. Performances have taken place walking towards the Buchenwald concentration camp in Germany, away from the Citadel in Barcelona and were presented at the 4S Conference 2023 in Honolulu, as part of the “Performances and Practices” panel. At EASST 4S 2024, we would like to hold two 90minute sessions. In the first session, we will introduce our artistic methods and introduce our notion of serendipity as a methodology that acknowledges the limitations of our positionalities. In order to inhabit the tension between historical specificities (time-event-place), we will walk around the city, observing transnational and atemporal traces in the hopes of developing an embodied point of view deriving from participatory interactions with local audiences, communities, environments, and his/herstories. Together, and in small groups we will search for performative micro gestures and interventions, exploring potentials for decolonial paths through Amsterdam. In the second session, (which we would prefer to hold after a rest day for reflection) we will co-create a performative walk integrating participants' experiences and gestures and perform this walk with interested participants as a part of the conference.