The Great Wall of China

 

[PT]

“I have to conclude that walking for seven hours along the Great Wall is the best way to walk for seven hours without going anywhere. There is almost no evolution, and you are accompanied, all the while, for miles, by a single architectural act, one that presents you with the same stones, the same color of parapets, the same concept of stairs. (...) The landscape around you, unchanging. Once you’ve gone forward far enough not to cross paths with anyone anymore, you’re surprised by the hypnotic power of that surreal walk, and your steps begin to seem to you like a descent into your own person, where the appearance of horizontal movement you still perceive begins to blend into a much clearer sense of vertical descent, of almost falling, slowly and rhythmically, toward a blind spot under your feet. In this way, as you begin to mistake fatigue for some sort of ascetic rapture, and the world fades into the design of the Wall, and the Wall fades into the rhythm of into the rhythm of your steps, and your steps fade into the movements of your mind, all that remains is a dense core of thought (...). The payoff: thought. Proximity to the meaning of things.”

A partir da leitura de alguns fragmentos de “The Great Wall of China”, capítulo final do livro The Barbarians, de Alessandro Baricco (2013), irei elaborar sobre a ideia de lugar enquanto espacialidade emergente, sempre nova e singular, resultante do encontro-cruzamento de duas paisagens, a do espaço físico e a do ‘espaço do corpo’.

No fragmento citado, o autor descreve a experiência de caminhar no alto da Grande Muralha. Sempre idêntica, a simetria arquitectónica da Muralha devolve ao caminhante a impressão de um não-movimento, de uma espécie de marche sur place. Na ausência aparente de deslocação no espaço, o que fica da acção de caminhar é sua cadência; uma cadência atuante, que se move em direcção ao corpo, e que ‘desce’, traçando um caminho vertical. Uma meditação do corpo conduzida pelo tempo e pelo peso. A chegada a um ponto cego, um lugar onde um pensamento surge.

A força do espaço físico desdobra-se nas múltiplas potencialidades de uso (affordance) que proporciona ao corpo; apela à acção, à pausa, à abertura, ao recolhimento, à lentidão...; possibilidades que o corpo acolhe e traduz, mesmo inconscientemente, em movimento (desejo).

Simetricamente, os corpos exalam incessantemente um espaço (espaço do corpo), que os envolve e que carrega de forças o espaço da relação com o mundo, transformando o espaço objectivo num campo afectivo de agenciamentos e contágios.

Percorrendo as noções de “ambiance” (Amagatzu; Thibaud) e de “atmosfera” (Gil), proponho-me refletir sobre a dinâmica emergente deste lugar onde confluem as forças do espaço físico e a espacialidade sensível do corpo próprio.

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[EN]

“I have to conclude that walking for seven hours along the Great Wall is the best way to walk for seven hours without going anywhere. There is almost no evolution, and you are accompanied, all the while, for miles, by a single architectural act, one that presents you with the same stones, the same color of parapets, the same concept of stairs. (...) The landscape around you, unchanging. Once you’ve gone forward far enough not to cross paths with anyone anymore, you’re surprised by the hypnotic power of that surreal walk, and your steps begin to seem to you like a descent into your own person, where the appearance of horizontal movement you still perceive begins to blend into a much clearer sense of vertical descent, of almost falling, slowly and rhythmically, toward a blind spot under your feet. In this way, as you begin to mistake fatigue for some sort of ascetic rapture, and the world fades into the design of the Wall, and the Wall fades into the rhythm of into the rhythm of your steps, and your steps fade into the movements of your mind, all that remains is a dense core of thought (...). The payoff: thought. Proximity to the meaning of things.”

From the reading of some fragments of 'The Great Wall of China', final chapter of the book 'The barbarians', by Alessandro Baricco (2013), I will elaborate on the idea of place as an emerging spatiality, always new and singular, resulting from the meeting-crossing of two landscapes, the physical space and the 'body space'.

In the fragment quoted, the author describes the experience of walking on top of the Great Wallof China. Always identical, the architectural symmetry of the Wall gives the walker the impression of non-movement, of a kind of 'marche sur place'. In the apparent absence of displacement in space, what remains of the action of walking is its cadence; an acting cadence, which moves toward the body, and which "descends", tracing a vertical path. A meditation of the body, driven by time and weight. The arrival at a blind spot, a place where a thought arises.

The strength of the physical space unfolds in the multiple potentialities of use (affordance) that it provides to the body; it appeals to action, to pause, to openness, to recollection, to slowness...; possibilities that the body welcomes and translates, even unconsciously, into movement (desire).

Symmetrically, the bodies incessantly exhale a space (body space), which involves them and carries forces in the space of the relation with the world, transforming the objective space into an affective field of agency and contagion.

Going through the notions of 'ambiance' (Amagatzu; Thibaud) and 'atmosphere' (Gil) I propose to reflect on the emerging dynamics of this place where the forces of physical space and the sensitive spatiality of the body itself converge.

Luca Aprea (Departamento de Teatro da Escola Superior de Teatro e Cinema - IPL)

[PT]

Encenador e investigador em teatro e artes performativas. Doutoramento em Motricidade Humana - especializado em Dança - pela FMH / Universidade de Lisboa. Investigador do INET-md (polo FMH). Diretor do Departamento de Teatro da Escola Superior de Teatro e Cinema do Instituto Politécnico de Lisboa.

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[EN]

Director and researcher in theater and performing arts. PhD in Human Motricity - specializing in Dance - from FMH / University of Lisbon. Researcher at INET-md (FMH pole). Director of the Department of Theatre at the Escola Superior de Teatro e Cinema do Instituto Politécnico de Lisboa.