The Awakening of the Urban Animal – by Helga Rosenfeldt-Olsen

A release of the urban animal. A ritual intervention in the urban space. An embrace of the city’s space.

TOOK PLACE:
Fri. 16 Sept. 14-18 / Area around Blågårds Plads, Cph. N
Sat. 17 Sept. 14-18 / Nørrebroparken, Cph. N
WHAT: Participatory performance walk
DURATION: The entire walk lasts 4 hours, but you can stay however long you want to. Each half hour the procession stops and invites people in.
FREE

The Awakening of the Urban Animal is a bodily procession that takes in and embraces the city through physical and sensory interventions in the city’s space. A playful shift in focus that awakens the slumbering and tingles the controlled bodies.

Nuclear physicist Geoffrey West has shown that as the city grows larger, the pace of everything begins to accelerate – for example, something as basic as the walking speed in cities increases as growth progresses. How are our bodies shaped by a post-modern urban space? And can we, with a shift in consciousness, create an increased sensual, bodily presence and a reclaiming of the city’s space?

The urban space is so full of intention, meaning and purpose for us, and we rarely notice the raw bodily reality of the city – how we are controlled, pushed and pulled in. The urban animal operates from a sensuous politics. It makes visible elements that structure our movement in everyday life and frame our ability to imagine.

The urban animal is reset, without status and identity. As a group, they find themselves in a void outside the rules of urban space in a fluid, soft state where anything is possible. Like strangers in the city without a clear place. The language of the urban animal is playful, sensual, ritualistic. And you can join.

Every half hour, the procession stops to invite outsiders in. Look for the red herd. You can’t go wrong.

On the day, you can find the live location of the procession in the Facebook event. Click here.

 

Photo: Marine Gastineau