Cleveland’s biennial BorderLight Festival, which debuted in 2019 and held its second edition — mostly virtually — this past summer, won’t be back until 2022. But it’s still offering an experience you can partake of right now, one that was part of its offerings this summer.
That experience is called THE WALKS, a multi-city international project created by Berlin-based Rimini Protokoll. The interactive, app-based audio experience takes the user on a short walk to a specific place in their city. The app will provide directions to guide the walker.
“THE WALKS app explores walking as a theatrical scenario — an audio-guided walk in parks, a staged walk in supermarkets or timed interactions on riverbanks,” they tell us. “In every city, voices, sounds, and music turn familiar places into sites and landscapes into stages step by step through storytelling, dialogical situations, choreographic discoveries, or musical and rhythmic variations on walking.”
“Walking in public gained new meaning with the COVID-19 pandemic,” says Protokoll. “An ancient, daily ritual became an integral part of the new normality. People meet, walk, stroll through neighborhoods, play in landscapes, and perceive their environment anew with every stride.”
THE WALKS for purchase is available on BorderLight’s website through July 2022.