Studi e ricerche

The Walk: A Participatory Performative Action Across the Borders of Europe

crossmark logo

Abstract

The chapter analyses the artistic action The Walk, performed across 9 borders by an international network of artists and citizens in support of asylum seekers. At the core of the performance is a giant puppet representing a little girl who walks 8,000 km from the Syria-Turkey border to the United Kingdom. Through this participatory march, The Walk attempts an act of spatial and urban decolonisation, designing an alternative public space. This paper analyses the case study by applying a practice-led approach combining Performance Studies and Migration Studies, and focusing on three main issues: the performative praxes of spatial politics, the relational process of creation, and the theatrical languages for a counter-narrative about migration.


Open access | Peer reviewed

Submitted: July 13, 2022 | Accepted: Oct. 21, 2022 | Published Jan. 26, 2023 | Language: en

Keywords Participatory art and public spaces • Borders • Performance and spatial politics • Theatre and refugees

Copyright © 2023 Rosaria Ruffini. This is an open-access work distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction is permitted, provided that the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. The license allows for commercial use. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

Permalink http://doi.org/10.30687/978-88-6969-677-0/010


read this chapter