The first exercise in being here

I returned. I hadn't planned to. In fact I hadn't planned anything. That was the whole idea. Leave and walk and see where your feet bring you. I had made sure there was nothing fixed in my schedule for the next 50 years. Nothing apart from 1 thing.

Already before my 96 day walk started in April this year, I had been asked by guitar player and composer Corrie van Binsbergen if I wanted to be part of a project called "De Verlichting": a series of five meetings for which she "composes" an afternoon together with a philosopher, musician or artist in order to bring new ideas into the world, give people something to think about. I was honoured. I said yes.
We talked about the content. Of course walking will be a central element. My video "A plastic journey" will be shown and harpist Miriam Overlach will play "The Plastic Crusader", written by composer Albert van Veenendaal inspired by that 4 day walk collecting all the plastic on my route. Miriam will also play a duo with tapdanser Marije Nie. Feet and music go together well in many ways. With singer Kristina Fuchs I will perform the one person opera "The woman without bagage" for which I wrote the libretto some years ago and I will do some talking probably. Show some images. Wear a three piece walking suit.

We talked about the content but we never talked about a title. I left on a long walk and somewhere inbetween Amsterdam and Vienna, one morning after having crawled out of my tiny tent and browsing the internet while eating a sober breakfast on the edge of a lonely forest I found myself mentioned on the website of Lux, a theater in Nijmegen. It was titled "Exercises in being here". February 15, 2015.

I was catapulted back in time. 2007. The Elsewhere Living Museum in North Carolina. A three storey former thriftstore in the city of Greensboro. For 1 month I lived in the middle of a huge collection of things together with many other artists, we worked night and day, we became part of the collection almost, we got lost in space and time, magic happened every day. My project was about absence and when I was asked for a title for my presentation, the first one in a series of lectures that was going to be held all summer, I came up with "Exercises in being here".

I was absent the evening my project about absence was presented. I hadn't planned to. A video I had shot in the night before my departure was shown while I was in a plane back to Holland to say goodbye to my grandmother and my mother in law who had died on the same day. July 4. Liberation day.

Exercises in being here. I still love that title. And it still covers what I am doing. I am glad Corrie found it and chose it.

So that is what I will write about here. Exercises in being here.

(images: from "Exercises in being here, 2007, Elsewhere Living Museum)