The CAMINANTE Project began in Spain where he spent the month of April 2013 walking Madrid. Wearing the traditional workman’s coveralls labeled—as is customary in Spain—with the trade/profession across the back (CAMINANTE in his case), he recycled ideas proposed by one of the most famous lines of Spanish poetry, Antonio Machado’s:
“Caminante, no hay camino, se hace el camino al andar.”
Translated, we run into a bit of a problem with how literal we should be taking Machado. By Caminante does he really mean walker? Or are we talking about a wanderer or seeker?
“Walker, there is no road, the road is made by walking.”
“Wanderer, there is no road, the road is made by walking.”
“Seeker, there is no road, the road is made by walking.”
We might even pair the wanderer or seeker with their wandering or seeking at the end of the sentence.
“Wanderer, there is no road, the road is made by wandering.”
“Seeker, there is no road, the road is made by seeking.”
At the turn of last century Spain was looking to regroup after losing its last imperial holdings in the Philippines and Cuba to the United States, thereby marking the final days of the Spanish Empire. Machado, and his cohort of Generation of ’98 poets and thinkers, writing at this important juncture in Spanish history, saw Spain re-creating and redefining itself to the world. Recent (and current) economic conditions on the Iberian peninsula have required a similar redefinition at all scales, from the national to household levels. Some calculate unemployment rates to have been at least 25% nationally.
The CAMINANTE Project—of which this Madrid performance was just a part—initially sought to propose a rethinking of work by calling on un/employed would-be-seekers to formally recognize—or, perhaps, initiate for the first time—their engagement with different forms of labor and/or (depending on your own translation) opt for personal, poetic and professional development at a time of so-called crisis. At the same time it sought to critique an economic system—and the mechanisms that keep it running—which did/does not readily recognize certain forms of labor nor care about personal, poetic and professional development. In a way, CAMINANTE sought to intervene somewhere in the middle—between the individual and the State.
The CAMINANTE Project continues to evolve in different geographies with day-long and week-long walks having taken place in mediterranean Valencia in May 2013, revitalizing downtown Cincinnati in June 2013 and in all points of New York City in June & December 2013. In February 2014 the CAMINANTE revisited the Big Apple through a Kickstarter-funded work-week-long performance framed by the practical economics of the living wage—a very publicized concept these days—as a way to further explore the role of the CAMINANTE in our current economic times and spaces. The CAMINANTE has since walked the urban cores of pre-Euro Budapest (December 2014) and Mozart’s Salzburg (January 2015). The CAMINANTE Walks took place during June-August 2015 in Salzburg, Austria where the themes of income and personal, poetic and professional development were revisited—this time through the concept of a guaranteed basic income. How will you live your life when you are guaranteed a basic income that covers the basic costs of food and rent? Participate and share your thoughts here.
In October 2016, after more than a one-year hiatus, the CAMINANTE made a return and walked Berlin, Germany over a long weekend. His first visit ever to the German capital, the CAMINANTE sought out a better understanding of this global city through a closer reading of its urban landscape and fabric. This weekend walk was also part of his ongoing investigations into his own role in twenty-first century economic systems and structures.
Recently, the CAMINANTE was found in East Africa—Tanzania, specifically—walking the General Tyre district of Dar es Salaam (November 2017).
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