DARTING FROM SIDE TO SIDE

Stephan Kurr

during my stay in Belgrade I want to make a zick-zack walk through the city for one day. Starting at the place where I am going to stay, I will turn left, after leaving the building. The next opportunity I get, I will turn right and the next one again left and than right and left and so on. I will do that for the whole day until sunset. At each turn I will take a photograph of the new direction. In the end I will have a slide show, or short movie, showing my way through the city.

I will do this type of walk as well in Helsinki where I am right now and in Istanbul, where I am going to be in January and maybe in 2 or 3 other cities I will be this year and next year.





The work is based on an art piece I realized recently in form of a book, titled " First decision after leaving the flat" (Erste entscheidung nach Verlassen der Wohnung), published by revolver-archiv für aktuelle Kunst, Frankfurt. The piece is a zick-zack walk through Berlin. The book is the list of the names of the streets and places, parks, etc. I walked. 		TEXT
PROGRAM
INITIATIVE
INDEX



ACTIONS:
>The capacity of a body isn't enough
>Darting from side to side
>MapPlay
     >  Rena+Vladan: Map of Novi Sad
>Decline of the Hype
>Itinereri
>YU (post) history happening
>strictly baltic
>Walking Exhibition
>Fragmenti
>The Walk-Room
>Entropy and the Heterogenous
Darting from side to side
Text by Kolja Kohlhoff

Every established order entails a sub-order or even an alternative order. The right-angled system of the city structure provides ways of getting around and usually their use is determined by the force of habit as much as by the economy of a shorter distance. The fastest way to cut across distances would be the "intelligent" diagonal, but such lines can only be drawn in open space. Therefore in judging the shortest way one has to consider not only the shortest routes, but also those possible. This dictate of possible short cuts however is evaded by the flâneur. He meanders aimlessly through the urban area, strides extravagantly across space and broadens his horizon by gaining a whole host of new impressions. The flâneur inhabits the city. The coordinates of his orientation refer to the pulsating streams of people in the inner city areas.

After having arrived in Berlin Stephan Kurr decides to make the city his own by measuring it on foot. He neither trusts the short, direct routes nor the conquest of the unfamiliar by acquiring habits. The city is an agglomeration that is defined by its boundaries. To come up against these limits or to venture towards these boundaries is what the explorer strives for. Point of departure and in a subjective sense also a focal point is his apartment in the Berlin district of Prenzlauer Berg. With the first decision to turn right, the direction is established. This is followed by a turn to the left and subsequently both directions alternate. In the course of this, each possible bend is taken advantage of.

As opposed to the flâneur - the aim of Stephan Kurr's project to perceive the city is not just to get to the city's boundaries. Rather it is his venture follows a system, which submits to the right-angled framework of the urban structure or moreover interprets the city most radically on the basis of its own logic. Unlike traffic, the pedestrian is able to take every path available. This means not only those pedestrian areas closed to drivers, but every form of urban pathway, be it private grounds or passages, which have to be taken, including the risk of having to turn around when arriving at a dead end. 		Since this self-imposed procedure means taking every possible bend not just the crossroads, it goes against the urban right-angled system and radicalizes it at the same time. Playgrounds, cemeteries and towards the city limits increasingly often allotments, but also passages, parking lots, building sites and sometimes private estates, are there for the passer-through. It was noticeable that in the eastern part unsecured and consequently accessible private estates occur more often than on the other side of the city. Walking becomes a "going through" of the differences in the city structure, experiencing its changes towards the outskirts.

The refusal of a straight forward approach - the efficient use of regular roads - does lead - on rationally determined detours - to the place of arrival, that can be fixed as marking the border not as a destination. In this venture the figure of the flâneur blends into the figure of the pedant. The act of roaming extravagantly is subject to a measurable order of fixed rules, which are rationally comprehendible when translated into action. To impose such a strict logic on your own movements nevertheless allows for the freedom to experience the paths and grounds one walks on. The obligation then to follow a rule becomes the freedom of awareness. Space, that opens up with every turn is to Stephan Kurr what people are to the flâneur.

Animals use the structure of turning right-angled, a logic of getting out of the way, because changing one's direction constantly means being unpredictable and escaping the enemy. The evasive action simultaneously means taking space, in contrast to the dead certain cutting through space by using the diagonal. By darting from side to side while he "takes" the city, Stephan Kurr plays a trick on the structural economy of space and time. He radicalizes the given order and beats it with exactly its own means.