Blindly walking in the continuous city. On “Walk, Hands, Eyes (a city)” by Myriam Lefkowitz
Traverser la ville ininterrompue : sentir et se figurer à l’aveugle. À propos de “Walk, Hands, Eyes (a city)” de Myriam Lefkowitz
Résumé
Dance research would have no reason to take interest in the contemporary city or public space if choreographers themselves had not already chosen to intervene there. By inscribing choreographic action in the city, these artists enter into dialogue with it: they intervene in urban reality in the distanced mode characteristic of art, a kind of distance that enables a rethinking of the contemporary world. Unlike that of the sociologist, architect or urban planner, the dance researcher’s methodology is not specifically designed for urban investigation. She takes a primarily artistic perspective on the city and public space, one shaped by experience of choreographic works. And if the dance researcher is also a city dweller, she takes a particular risk in thinking the city via the prism of art. Perhaps her research approach seems too specific and limited, and the resulting discourse on the city insufficiently specialised. But this way of entering into the heart of experience allows one to grasp the issues at stake within it, and to understand what that experience might specifically contribute to conceptualising the relation to public space. In this essay I explore a case study: the piece “Walk, Hands, Eyes (a city)” made in 2010 by the choreographer Myriam Lefkowitz. I also, ultimately, reflect on the theoretical issues raised by aesthetic experience of Lefkowitz’s work. The latter takes the form of an urban walk. But “walking” can take a variety of forms. And so I will be concerned here with reflecting on the various modalities of movement and with understanding, on this basis, how capacity for movement and knowledge of the city are connected.
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