WALKING BACKWARDS
Tamam Shud, Episode 5
(Ujazdowski Castle Centre for Contemporary Art, Warsaw)
Walking Backwards (Alex Cecchetti)
Fifth episode of the artist’s novel Tamam Shud, by Alex Cecchetti.
In the frame of the project The Novel As Fantasy.
Performance, Ujazdowski Castle Centre for Contemporary Art, Warsaw
30 June 2017
A tree after another, the story of this garden and its plants is revealed, till it merges with yours.
When you walk backwards, the future is on your back, and the past is longing in the distance in front of you, insisting on the horizon. You can mostly tell it goodbye.
And if you’ll hit a branch with your head, or gently a flower will caress your hand, suddenly will arise the indisputable fact that images do not come from light, as we dream with eyes closed.
The performance Walking Backwards takes place at the botanical garden beside the Ujazdowski Castle Centre for Contemporary Art. One by one, people are invited to literally walk backwards into a narrative path. A guide will lead the spectator, his voice whispered in her ear telling stories of the place and the fantastic anecdotes inspired by it. The guide’s voice is superimposed on the images that gradually appear in the spectator’s visual field as she advances backwards.