An artistic project conceived by Jocelyn Cottencin, Just A Walk developed between March 2005 and January 2007, over a shifting geographical zone whose coordinates were Bilbao, San Sebastian, Glasgow, Porto, Lisbon and Rennes. Just A Walk has also generated a web site, working sessions with artists and art professionals, research and experiment, performances and an exhibition.
Like Jocelyn Cottencin’s artist undertakings generally, Just A Walk is basically a practice of displacement. It is not a matter of removing something or putting an artist in a residency abroad, but more about the experience of unexpected connections that develop between ideas, works, individuals and structures. All this takes place in a time frame that is flexible enough for Just A Walk to be modulated in accordance with new encounters and projects.
Just A Walk is not a direct interrogation of the “European space”: rather, the practice of displacement challenges the notion of “territories” both as reality and in their imaginary existence and the utopia that they generate. It questions the relation that the individual develops to his surroundings, be it a nation, an identity, a private space or a collective one.
As participants in Just A Walk, Jocelyn Cottencin chose the following artists: Roderick Buchanan (Glasgow), Carla Cruz (Porto), Claudia Diaz (Lisbon), Marcel Dinahet (Rennes), Tiago Guedes (Lisbon), Alain Michard (Rennes), Loïc Touzé (Rennes), Sébastien Vonier (Rennes).
The art critic and freelance curator Jean-Marc Huitorel also took part in the artists’ working meetings for Just A Walk and kept a journal of the project’s development.
At once a publication, work platform and space for exchange between guest artists, the web site www.justawalk.com invites users to freely explore the works, working sessions, critic’s journal and interviews with the artists.
Just A Walk constitutes the first cycle in an ongoing project involving European residencies. This programme of residencies is original in that the choice of European cities and partners will be determined by specific artistic projects. la criée centre d'art contemporain follows up the conception of the project with the guest artist, and finds the partners and collaborators it requires. For Just A Walk, the links and collaborations are with the following European cities and structures: in Glasgow, the Tramway; in Rennes la criée centre d'art contemporain, FRAC Bretagne and the Centre Chorégraphique National de Rennes et de Bretagne; in Nantes the FRAC des Pays-de-la-Loire; in Bilbao the Sala Rekalde; in Porto the Fundacao Serralves; in Lisbon the RE:AL. collective.
copyright © 2005_2006 by RODERICK BUCHANAN, JOCELYN COTTENCIN, CARLA CRUZ, TIAGO GUEDES, JEAN-MARC HUITOREL, ALAIN MICHARD, NUNO SACRAMENTO, SEBASTIEN VONIER. all rights reserved. unless otherwise indicated, all materials on these pages are copyrighted. no part of these pages, either text, audio, video or images may be used for any purpose other than personal use, unless explicit authorization by each artist. therefore, reproduction, modification, storage in a retrieval system or retransmission, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, or otherwise, for reasons other than personal use, is strictly prohibited without prior written permission.
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