Walk on by – unfolding map, °2 Białystok

The video is a recording of a performance Sibylle Ettengruber gave at the International Performance Art Festival ”PERFORMANCE ARSenał Białystok” (2009). The footage shows a walk around Białystok, following a route the artist delineated on the city’s map. It ran in a triangle which contained the Planty park and the pre-war housing district for civil servants, and was a reference to the triangular market created in the 18th c. when Białystok was the property of Jan Klemens Branicki.

The walk was a confrontation with the reality of the city, its shape and infrastructure, the elements of which were not fully reflected on the map. Though the streets, buildings, and green areas were illustrated on the layout, the actual urban fibre was only revealed during the walk. Ettengruber encountered barriers dividing street lanes, long lines of cars in traffic, a river, or private flats which she sometimes had to enter through one window and exit through another. On her way, the artist revealed the interdependencies between the living organism of the city and the functioning of the people in it. This particular project was carried out in Białystok but similar actions had been conducted in Linz, Braunschweig and Berlin. There too, they provoked similar questions related to the anthropology of the city. The inconspicuous walk around the town forced a reflection on the problematic nature of urban infrastructure, our awareness of the city and, finally, on the acceptance of plans developed by urban planners.

Ettengruber’s project had yet another dimension, which is important in the context of Galeria Arsenał’s presence in Białystok. An old electrical power plant was one of the milestones on the route of the project. It now belongs to the gallery and is used to present the newest art. In 2009, when the artist was delineating her route, the fate of the building was still being hotly discussed. In hindsight, the moment of the artist passing the door to what is now an exhibition space, carries a symbolic meaning, unintended by the artist. By entering the premises of the power plant, Ettengruber metaphorically appropriated the place and handed it over to art.

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