Stalker gave a fascinating lunchtime lecture today at PLACE. They told the story of their 15 years of practice through photographs and anecdotes of various projects undertaken in their home city of Rome, finishing with a video of one of their walks.
Lorenzo explained how they don't just walk, but 'walk across' the city, through unexpected, inaccessible, abandoned places. They create an interactive online map of their walk, that evolves as individuals add things to it, to contain the personal and forgotten memories of the city. These are not maps as a global representation of the city, but rather maps of their experiences...maps which, like the walks themselves, connect spaces that would not otherwise be connected - luxury, gated communities, for example, to the grittier areas around them, or abandoned buildings to their inhabited neighbourhoods - into a common vision of space, 'making a new infrastructure that connects the inhabitants of a city together.'
The projects are about social engagement - more focused on the process than the destination. As Lorenzo told us, Stalker try to make people break their habits; 'we try to make things happen that could never normally take place.' Such as the Roma community preparing a feast for the locals. Or planting olive trees in thousands of roundabouts across Rome and inviting local communities to come and make oil together. Or walking the 80km highway around Rome...just because.
How interesting it will be to see what Stalker make of Belfast on the walk tomorrow, and what Belfast makes of them! Come and join in if you can!
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