Caminatas / Walks

WALKS

Staying away from the worn-out trail of tourists hungry for comfortable beaches and domesticated volcanoes, Hamish Fulton (London, 1946), one of the historical references in the field of European land art , spent seven days walking around the north of Lanzarote in February 2004 after an invitation from the César Manrique Foundation ( fcm) . That experience was transformed into an aesthetic creation which was displayed in February and March as "geographic poetry" (Francesco Careri) at the venue owned by the Canary Island institution: maps, photographs and panels bearing texts that explained the steps taken and the toponomy encountered, the immediacy of the experience and the perception of space. His is a poetic art that speaks of absence, in any case, since the representation cannot completely capture the experience of walking, of the body immerse in time. Some of the works exhibited, which were displayed alongside other previous creations that refer to other walks Fulton has made around different areas of the Spanish territory, will become part of the fcm 's Art and Nature Collection. The institution previously commissioned works by landscape artists like Nils-Udo, Thomas Joshua Cooper, Miguel Ángel Blanco and Axel Hütte.

Question .- What does "walking" mean?

Answer.- It means a lot of things, but, to begin with, I could say it is a way of getting in touch with nature.

Q.- We walked from the exhibition hall to the room where we are conducting this interview. What is the difference between the way we walk and the way you do?

A.- Both walks are connected. Nevertheless, when I walk, I only decide when to begin and when to end. The walk becomes an object. A walk can exist in the manner that an invisible object exists in a complex world.

Q.- Could we refer to "pilgrimage" in your work?

A.- Sometimes, not always. There are many dimensions to my walks: pilgrimage, contemporary dance, rituals, or, when I embark on long walks, even physical demonstration.

Q.- Could you expand on the dance-related dimension?

A.- I once carried out a project in France with a dancer and realised the connection that exists between walking and dancing, since walks are structured and planned in advance. I establish a previous route before I start walking and dancers also stick to a plan, called a choreography.

Q.- Which is your best work of art: the drawing your feet have sketched along the path or the images that represent your walks in the exhibition venue?

A.- I do not see the footprints I leave along the path as works of art. Walking is art, and that is transmitted, for example, in the artist's book we have published for this exhibition. When the walk is over, the work is complete.

Q.- Your works contain a strong linguistic component -texts, maps, etc. During your walks, do you feel in close contact with nature or do you think language stands between you and it?

A.- Language obviously stands between us. People think they are alone when they are walking through nature, but they are not. They are accompanied by birds, reptiles... When we build a city, we design it all. Yet when we enter nature, we realise there is an unknown force, a force we are unacquainted with. The lava in Lanzarote was not designed by an architect or produced by a factory. Going back to the issue of art, what I do not do is take things from natural environments and bring them home.

Q.- Which means you would not exhibits circles of stones in a gallery.

A.- No. Furthermore, Fernando Gómez Aguilera, director of the Foundation, has told me it is illegal to take stones from Lanzarote.

Q.- Yet you would not take stones with you, neither from here nor from a place where it were allowed.

A.- No, I would not.

Q.- ...This sets your work apart from Richard Long's.

A.- Indeed. Nevertheless, I am an international artist and I, ironically, generate more pollution than people who are not interested in nature. I have to catch planes, use paper for my catalogues, use vinyl for my exhibitions, etc. I am not saying I think it is wrong that Richard Long sells stones, just that I do not. A river rock is round because it is contact with water, water that has eroded it; its shadow was created by the river, and I do not want to break that relationship by taking the rock to a museum. One cannot ask a rock "Can I take you with me to a museum?"... If you take a rock from Lanzarote and sell it as a work of art, nature will not receive a commission from the sale.

Q.- Minimalism has generated children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren. You and other members of your generation inaugurated walking as an aesthetic practice, have continuators appeared?

A.- At present there are, essentially, young artists walking through cities. Some are very interesting, like North American artist Danielka Phelps or the Italian group Stalker. One of my main concerns is to see what artists like these are doing.

Q.- When you arrive to a destination, like Lanzarote now, do you gather information on the location or do you try to be as unconditioned as possible?

A.- Sometimes I want to know a lot beforehand, others I like to embark on my walk without any previous knowledge.

Q.- Why have you only taken photographs of footpaths and tracks in Lanzarote?

A.- Each walk offers a great many photographic possibilities, yet I always restrict my choice. In this case, I limited my options to the path that lay ahead of me and the ground beneath my feet.

Q.- Be it a motorway or a path, you refer to the track in the self-interview included in the book published for the exhibition. It is a cultural construction with a very strong symbolism.

A.- When you reach a path, you think that, in times past, people may have travelled along it by donkey, whilst, now, it has become a road. I discussed the real need for this road with Gómez Aguilera, since there is another road running parallel next to it. The natural ground is evermore covered with asphalt.

Q.- Why did you decide to set out from Punta Mujeres?

A.- That is where I was staying. It is like flipping a coin.

Q.- When you walk around the La Corona volcano counting 3,250 steps, are you satirising on the human brain, and its constant concern with measuring it all?

A.- Of course. I mean, who cares about that? I walked around the volcano in 2004 and I liked the idea of walking around the upper rim, since it is neither a road nor a path.

Q.- Your books usually include depictions of bottles of local water. In this case, we see a bottle of Firgas.

A.- The Canary Islands are different from the Amazonia, for example. This water is from the Canary Islands. I am interested in highlighting the relevance water has in our lives and, also, in underscoring the fact that the Canary Islands are surrounded by water. As they said in a North American comedy, if human beings are 98% water, we are 2% away from drowning.

Translation: Laura F. Farhall