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WALKING AS EPISTEMOLOGY - A WAY TO KNOW MIGRANT EXPERIENCE THROUGH ENACTION OF THE LIVE ART PERFORMANCE TWO NIGHT WALKS, THREE BORDERS
Abstract
The article describes a qualitative inquiry in the form of a case-study based within a performance as research paradigm. The study entailed the implementation of a performance art piece by the author in which migration was viewed as a phenomenon rooted in the personal experience of space and time. It also exploited tropes central to the author’s previous performances: walking and the use of “poor” objects. For the performance, the author walked a total of 42 kilometres over two nights, cut up sections of wire mesh fencing – symbolic of the barriers that have been constructed at many borders – then exhibited the pieces of deconstructed fences as line maps of three “significant” borders for migrant crossings. The aim of the performance was to find a suitable embodiment for migration through movement and the handling of objects. This was done in order to facilitate a greater understanding of migration through performance (based upon the author’s own experience and not solely dictated by other narratives) and to empower the author as a performer-researcher – to enable him to tackle feelings of helplessness and inertia in connection with migration and to express his disagreement with a present-day response to migration. After the performance, autoethnography was used to probe for deeper insights into what involvement in the performance had revealed in connection with migration. In the conclusion, it is suggested that the aims of the inquiry were achieved. Moreover, through the performance an epistemology of walking was enacted, while the use of autoethnography allowed for a process of “figuring out”, where the results did not lead to definitive answers but opened up the phenomenon for further investigation through performance.
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