Aleks Borys

In February 2014 Ministry of Culture and National Heritage with National Centre of Culture awarded me with “Mloda Polska 2014” grant for research project “Movementscape” on the relation of walking art and choreography.

The idea is that the project will be finallize with two open for audience choreographic happenings that will engage audience, will awaken a need for active contact with art, but also will give a sense of relaxation and reflection.
During the year long research I will be collecting video footage that will be used as a material for documentary dance film, a site out come of the “Movementscape” research.

The research perios is divided to four parts:
– the first one is devoted to collecting theory knowledge: about walking art, choreography theories, performance, and relations between them;
– the second part is for practicing long term walks, with choreographic tasks. I want to spend this time trying out to implement choreographic approaches to the art of long term walks. I will go for few trips to the different country sides. During each I will collect video footage;
– the third part is a time I will spent on finding out and articulating how the experience of long term walking influenced my choreographic practice. As well as I will edit the footage from the travels to make a documentary dance video;
– during forth part I will preparer an open to the audience event proposition, inspired by the year long experience.

September 2014

The first half of Movementscape project has passed. Lot’s happened during this time. I practice daily walks alone in various environments: geometry walks in Poznan, wonder walks in south England and country site in Poland, walks along the river in Paris, London, Poznan, Warszaw. During the last SPAZIO residency in Amsterdam I invited Alice Pons for silent walk for two. I did trio walks on Crete for a week. I practiced duo walks with voluntary silence in Bialowieza National Park. I read great books about and on walking art.
I collected a great amount of video footage during all this time. Now, I will continue the practices and move on to editing.

November 2014

The year long research founded by Mloda Polska 2014 scholarship from Ministry of Culture and National Heritage is about to finalize. Comming weekend 13th and 14th of December the Movementscape installation will be open to public in Art Stations Foundation by Grazyna Kulczyk at Slodownia +1 in Poznan/ Poland.

Movementscape project focuses on the relation and influence of the walking practice on language of choreography. The process was divided into: theoretical research, long term walking practice, translating the experience into choreographically language. The project ends with two days long installation Movementscape inspired and informed by the experience of the year long research. Created landscape invites visitors for a walk and allows everyone to have their very own experience of the space. It is a kind of maze/ labyrinth where each person can find and map it own journey. As well there are some secret treasures that anyone can decide to make an importance of.

December 2014

During an year long research project on relation of walking art and choreography – MOVEMENTSCAPE -founded by Mloda Polska 2014 scholarship of Ministry of Culture and National Heritage in Poland, I focused on importance of daily practice and choice making. Also wanted to allow every process last as long as needed. I tried to understand walking art through choreographic point of view, and experiment with walking art prospects in choreography. After long months of failure in trying to translate the experience into movement I finally understood that was not a way to do so. I changed my mind set and focused on what is it that I wanted to communicate after all. I wanted to share the experience in the purest possible way. That led me to creating a environment where every visitor will have a change to create their own journey. Finally it was a maze like scape with lines in space creating a “walls” or “paths”, few stations for every to explore. It was important for me that every individual could make a choice in what way wants to explore the landscape. The installation was open to the public on 13th and 14th of December and took place at Slodownia +1 in Art Stations Foundation by Grazyna Kulczyk in Poznan/ Poland. After an year of using walking as an art practice I started to treat it as a meditative activity, paradoxical break, a way to slow down the daily speed and it would always create more space for my mind to work creatively. I started to appreciate more the transition as a valuable activity rather then side effect.