De-touring the city

Twice daily on 2, 3 ,4 and 5 June

2pm departing from 44AD artspace, BA1 1NN

7pm departing from The Grapes, BA1 1EQ

As an international and interdisciplinary collective of artists working on – and in – public space, we will be creating and facilitating a walking De-tour in the city of Bath. Our aim is to reconsider how public space is viewed, used, and engaged with. This De-tour will happen several times between 2nd and 5th June 2022, and we look forward to welcoming you at one of them!

In our De-tour we will incorporate some conventional elements of the city-tour and some playful and unexpected elements. Just like you would in an ordinary tour, we will walk with participants through the city centre of Bath and pause from time to time to focus our attention on something specific. The locations for these stops vary from popular landmarks of Bath to mundane and less noticed spots. We will share with the participants information and narratives related to the historical and sociopolitical context of Bath, with a focus on the element of water, on humour, and on ordinary elements of the city landscape.

Additionally, we will invite participants to explore public space through prompts (succinct invitations for action). The prompts aim at creating a multisensory experience of the city (smell, taste, touch, listening, observing) and movements in public space that diverge from normalised bodily behaviour in the city.

At the beginning of the walking De-tour, each participant will receive a pamphlet (which will also be made available at certain Fringe Arts Bath locations). Participants will be invited to write and draw on the pamphlet and, thus, create their own map of experiencing the city of Bath. We also hope that, whether or not you can come with us in June, our prompts can give you ideas to explore your own location – or next destination – in a completely different way.

Curated by Playground Collective : Jenny Alderton, Tricia Enns, Rik Fisher, Neta Gracewell, Foivi Psevdou, Lou Sarabadzic.

We are a collective of international Artists and Cultural Practitioners who engage with space and place. The explorations and curiosities we embark on are inspired by many concepts such as psychogeography, wandering, playfulness and even boredom.

Foivi Psevdou (based in Athens, Greece) moves between the fields of language, theatre, pedagogy, and durational performance art. She currently experiments with (re)configuring perceptions of time in public space and in everyday life. Her research with artistic practice encompasses hyperslow walking and poietic speaking-writing.
More on https://foivpsevdou.wixsite.com/temporal

Jenny Alderton (based in South Wales) is a cross-disciplinary artist who often works with movement, words, and photography to create videos and installation work. Their artistic practice often engages with concepts of the self and identity, (dis)connectivity and (dis)communication, as well as psychogeography, space, and place.
Jenny draws inspiration from a variety of subjects from politics and inequality, through to nostalgia, coincidence, and the everyday.
More on www.eloquentscream.com

Lou Sarabadzic (based in England, and sometimes France) is passionate about interactive projects, performance, and digital tools, and her interest in visual art also developed into recent experimentations in the field of papermaking and printmaking. Her work often involves exploring the nexus of self, social norms, public space, and poetics.
More on https://www.lousarabadzic.com/

Neta Gracewell (based in London, and sometimes Tel Aviv) is a theatre director, performer, creative producer and multidisciplinary artist. In her works she explores translation, the moving body and new ways to engage audiences in the arts while cultivating authenticity and empathetic practice.
More on https://www.junctiontheatre.com/

Rik Fisher (based in Berlin) uses participatory approaches, often in conjunction with walking, to encourage play, interaction, opening dialogues and questioning spaces and places. Rik also has a background in mental health, music and multidisciplinary arts.
More on https://www.instagram.com/rik.fisher/

Tricia Enns (based in Montreal, Canada) works within the intersection of materiality, embodiment, and public space. Her current research-creation work explores how the use of walking, collecting debris and paper making can be employed through participatory activities to find new, alternative methods of relating to public spaces.
More on https://www.narrativedebris.com/ and https://www.triciaenns.com/