Self guided walk
We walk slowly to increase our awareness of space and of each other. A sensitive and slow pace is created collaboratively when we slowly walk over the bridge together, and with our ancestors.
What happens with you, the space, and the city when we change our rhythm and pace, entering the slow walking piece?
Instruction video (to be added)
Session with Berg Duo
Ami Skånberg introduces the group to the concept of the Suriashi Walk. This is both a guide to how to walk and the concept of combining sharing space with your ancestor (or other select important human/more than human co-walker) in addition to the group gathered. Anna Viola Hallberg records the walk and a new video for Embodying Hashigakari - Immanent Encounters with Bridges is created.
Post walk Ami Skånberg does a sharing session of the experience.
Starting in 2023 and going on through 2024 Berg Duo makes a series of collective walks over bridges. It is considered both an intervention in urban or other spaces and experimental pilgrimage.
The series started out with public calls for participation whereas some has been for special groups or with select individuals. The first itteration was duing an out door exhibition in Norrtälje, Sweden.
The perspective of documentation was always a low or superlow angle with the walkers approaching.
The spatial sound is the same for all videos, only the duration of the sound adjusted for the specific walk (play Suriashi for Norrtälje for example)
The video installation is preferibly made so the viewer from one point can see the separate videos, with participants walking towards the center location. The installation is site specific and variation adapting to the physical conditions of the space where it is installed. The installation can be combined with other works by Berg Duo.
As of August 2024 the installation consists of 8 videos, duration between 3 and 12 min. The videos has no introductory text or end text and are played in 8 separeate loops.
Suriashi, is a Japanese walking practice, that translates as sliding foot. Suriashi is a specific gender codified walking technique in classical Japanese dance and theatre, and an important method for acting on stage. Gender is constructed physically through the positioning and molding of the body. The original practice is performed in the dance studio or on stage. Ami Skånberg asks whether suriashi also could be a method to act, as being active, or to activate, and temporally alter spaces outside the theatre; i.e. the practical application of this artistic practice outside the theatrical context. This relocation brings a traditional form into new configurations, connecting to everyday practices and sites of resistance and performance. It also contributes to the burgeoning field of walking arts practice, bringing a Japanese dance-based practice into a dialogue with debates and practices of Western dancing and walking.
Suriashi performed in urban and other spaces was able to unfold and identify new relations between aesthetic practice and politics, between movements and monuments in the city as a way to critique the unequal distribution of power, and by looking for new ways to protest/resist peacefully.
The video installation Embodying Hashigakari - Immanent Encounters with Bridges is set to premiere in 2025. At that time a few more videos will be included.
WALKS 2023
Title: Suriashi for Norrtälje >>>
Date: June 30, 2023, Sweden
Site: Faktori Bron, Norrtälje
Participants: general public (about 100 people))
Accessible for rewalks until August 14th, 2024 for the duration of Trickle open air exhibition.
Official innaguration of Trickle Art In the River Norrtäje >>>
Title: Suriashi for Bonn
Date: August 11, Germany
Participants: Public Participation
Site: Poppelsdorfer Schloss, Clemens-August-weg, Bonn Germany
Part of exhibition Becoming Landscapeat DAS ESSZIMMER – Raum für Kunst+ >>>
Title: Suriashi for Björkö
Date: Sept 5th, 2023, Sweden
Site: Walkbridge, Skenninge, Björkö
Participants: artists from WAP23 program at BKN/Björkö Konstnod
WALKS 2024 (on going)
Title: Suriashi for Tokyo
Date: July 2, 2024
Site: Tokyo University, Komaba campus, Japan
Invited co-walker: Cy Cheung
Title: Suriashi for Kyoto
Date: July 9th
Site: Taihei-kaku, Shin-en Gardens, Heian Jingu, Kyoto, Japan
Solowalk by Ami Skånberg in public space.
Title: Suriashi for Ise
Date: July 20th, Japan
Site: Hiyoke-bashi, Ise Jingu Geku, Outer Sanctuary
Title: Suriashi for Kahoku
Date: July 20th, Japan
Site: Passage at the Ishikawa Nishida Kitaro Museum of Philosophy, Kahoku
Solo-walk by Ami Skånberg
Title: Suriashi for Rome
Date: August 4th, Italy
Site: Fabricius bridge
Invited co-walkers: Cy Cheung, Eli Belgrano, Mark D Price