Circling Around (Without Taking Off)
Circling Around (Without Taking Off) // Bruno de Wachter
Sat 10 Sept + Sunday 11 Sept |10am - 5pm + 12pm | Free but booking is essential
Meet: Birmingham New Street Station, under the main dome. Lunch provided on both days.
Over the course of a day, Bruno de Wachter will lead this immersive group walk around Birmingham International Airport, exploring the surrounding streets, terrain and atmospheres to see how the airport’s existence variously affects the landscape. Our movements and observations will be influenced by a set of rules provided by the artist. Lunch will be provided on both days and guests should ensure they can commit to returning on Sunday to a city centre location to inform the creation of an annotated map, based on observations, photographs and discussion.
On Friday 16 Sept Bruno will present his responses to the event at The Woodman at 6pm; please book separately for this free event.
The group will meet at Birmingham New Street Station, directly beneath the highest point of the main dome in Grand Central Station. The Sunday meeting location will be given to attendees on the Saturday - but will be a city centre café or restaurant. Lunch will be provided on both days.
"Airports are very similar all the world over. Regional differences are reduced to the souvenirs that you can buy in the gift shop. For this reason, you could say that the airport cuts a hole in the local landscape. That is why it is often represented as a hatched surface on the map. A hole that is not, like a rabbit hole, leading down into a bottomless black, but one that is leading up, into an infinite blue. In order to describe a hole, you have to circumscribe it.
I walk around international airports and invite people to join me. We will not walk directly around the fence, but along roads and paths that are close to the airport. We will follow a set of rules that will help us to stay local. After the walk, we will meet again with all the participants to create a story and a map of our explorations"
About Bruno
Born Antwerp, 1972.
From my base in Brussels, I work on writing and walking projects. I have published essays, translations and prose in the Flemish literature magazine Yang and in its successor nY. I have started writing prose inspired by long distance walking and I am gradually evolving towards fiction writing. I have a special interest in the tension between the global and the local, and in the interrelations between the human body, language and landscape. I sometimes organize group walks that are related to this artistic research.
Booking
This event is free but booking is essential.
The walk will be approximately 10 miles long. It will involve some public footpaths that might be muddy in case of rain. Wear comfortable shoes. Dress according to the weather. Bring a photo camera or phone with camera. Ages 12+
We will meet again the next day between 12 - 1pm to create a story of our explorations.