2024

Film：
             👉🏻︎
                                     

Project funded by the Düsseldorf Art Commission stadt.raum.experimente 2024.



Project: Performance art experiment
Project progress:Paris, France;
                                  London, England;
                                  Düsseldorf, Germany

（"Flâneur," a French term, originally depicted 19th-century urban strollers in Paris, utilized to explore urban space, modernity, and capitalist consumer culture. Traditionally seen as an independent observer, the flâneur would aimlessly wander the city, maintaining a certain distance to observe the city's changes and people's daily lives. With accelerated urbanization and rapid technological development, our lives have become more efficient and swift. Time and space exert unprecedented pressure on people, making their life experiences and perceptions more mechanical and fast-paced. These changes deeply impact individual lifestyles and the existence and value of the role of the "flâneur."

Drawing inspiration from fragments of Walter Benjamin's "The Arcades Project" (in Paris of 1839, strolling with a tortoise became a favorite activity of urban wanderers), the work collaborates with local seniors, wandering the city with a mechanical biometric tortoise. Through an experiment with flâneur performance art, the 19th-century wanderer from Benjamin's work is revived (the project is expected to conduct performance art experiments in several locations).

Especially in recent decades, with the continuous development of the economy, urbanisation and the pace of life accelerating, we are always accustomed to speeding up our pace to match the ever-changing social changes, and it seems that we have already become accustomed to such a life. In such an environment, we gradually forget the changes in the space around us and the meaning of our lives. The technological revolution, represented by electronic maps, has made us lose our sensitivity and control of our lives more quickly in pursuit of an efficient and convenient lifestyle. This makes each of us an active participant in today's society.

We use Google Maps to find the shortest routes and choose the quickest transport to get to the end point we have set. While we feel the convenience of technology, it has gradually accelerated the pace of our lives for personal and societal efficiency. Nowadays, each individual becomes an important part of the social machine, and it becomes valuable and idealistic to view society from a calm and objective standpoint. In this context, it is particularly important to rethink the role of the "Flâneur," or the value of its existence. 🐢





本项目以“Flâneur（闲逛者）”这一历史性的城市角色为切入点，探讨在高度效率化、技术化与系统化的当代城市环境中，缓慢、无目的的身体行动如何逐渐失去其合法性，并被排除在主流城市经验之外。

在19世纪的城市语境中，Flâneur 并非单纯的文学形象，而是一种真实存在的城市生活状态。通过漫无目的的行走、停留与观察，他们与城市保持着一种既亲近又疏离的关系。这种行走方式不以效率、消费或目标达成为前提，而是一种允许延迟、犹豫与旁观的城市经验。就像本雅明在《拱廊街计划》中记录的那样，他并将其视为理解现代城市经验的重要历史线索。

然而，随着资本主义、消费主义以及现代城市治理体系的发展，城市逐渐被重构为一个以效率、速度与功能为核心的系统。尤其在近几十年，数字技术、导航系统与算法逻辑深度介入日常生活，城市空间不再主要被体验，而是被持续计算、优化与管理。时间与空间被压缩，行动被规范为“最短路径”“最快速度”“最优方案”，个体的身体节奏逐渐被校准为系统可接受的单位。

在这样的环境中，Flâneur 所代表的缓慢、无目的的行走方式不再被视为一种正当的城市经验，而更像是一种不合时宜的异常状态。身体不再拥有选择节奏的自由，而是被嵌入到由效率与技术主导的城市运行逻辑之中。

本项目并不试图复现或浪漫化19世纪的 Flâneur 形象，而是将这一与当代城市逻辑相悖的行动方式重新置入现实之中，作为一种方法性的测试。自2024年起，项目在巴黎、伦敦与杜塞尔多夫等城市展开，与当地居民合作，通过牵引一只缓慢行走的仿生乌龟机器人，在日常城市空间中进行持续的步行行为。

在项目中，仿生乌龟并非怀旧的象征，而被设计为一种时间装置。在当代社会中，机器通常被用于提升效率与速度，而在此，机器却被刻意设定为缓慢运行，从而制造出与城市系统的直接摩擦。这种摩擦迫使行走的身体、周围的人群以及城市基础设施同时进入一种不稳定状态，使隐藏在日常生活中的节奏规范被短暂暴露出来。

通过在不同类型的城市系统中重复这一缓慢的行动，项目关注的并非城市的文化符号或地理差异，而是城市作为系统对“非优化行为”的反应方式。无论是历史叠加的步行空间、高度加速的商业街区，还是秩序明确的城市规划环境，这种缓慢的行动都会被不同程度地忽视、回避或排斥。这些反应本身构成了作品的重要部分。

整个过程通过影像与现场记录的方式被保存下来，但影像并不作为独立的叙事作品存在，而是作为一种时间性雕塑的证据。作品的雕塑性并不体现在某个具体物体上，而体现在被塑造和显现出来的关系之中——身体与系统、节奏与规范、行动与城市结构之间的张力。

在这一意义上，当代的 Flâneur 不再是浪漫的观察者，而成为一个被不断校正的身体。他既是行动的发起者，也是被城市系统测试的对象。无论是被注视、被绕行，还是被完全忽视，这些看似微小的反应都指向一个更深层的问题：当城市只为高效与目的性行动预留空间时，缓慢是否仍然被允许存在？

本雅明