Pandemic Walk

A video, a book and some watercolour drawings about ten walks in a park.

Ursula Böckler and Georg Graw have been in collaboration as „Graw Böckler“ since 1997. They are based in Berlin. Their artistic work is across video and still photography. The subjects derive from daily surroundings and personal experiences. Shooting mainly happens in a documentary fashion, often during extensive travels. The material is dramatized during post-production and structured within projects like “Concepción” (2023-24) „Residence 6“ (2017-20), „Let´s Talk about the Weather“(2014-17), „Super-8-Reels“ (2010-17), „Unauthorized Commercials“ (2005-10). Digital photos could be also accessed through book length compilations. They often exhibit the analogue stills as prints (sometimes repainted). From 2001 until 2014 Graw Böckler ran the platform for the experimental video „raumfür projektion“ (space for projection) in Cologne and were part of thecuratorial team of the project space „General Public“ (2009-2014) in Berlin. Their latest curatorial initiative is the „graw böckler garage“ which culminated in an art festival in an abandoned garage village (2022).

Video

During Corona, social life in Berlin was brought to zero by contact restrictions. Spending time outdoors was still allowed, which led to the parks filling up with passers-by. The video "Pandemic Walk" reflects this situation with ten walks, in which the route from Alt Treptow through the Görlitzer Park along the Maybachufer and back is taken by Ursula in the company of a friend who she couldn’t see for a while. The film shows the walk once, so it is permanently cut back and forth between the ten interlocutors. The path taken by one protagonist is repeated by another. People and weather change every second. Even the conversations, which casually revolve around dealing with Corona, professional and personal developments, gradually merge into one another. Sentences are started, continued by someone else, and finished by a third person. They transform into a kaleidoscope of topical states of mind. The moving gimbal camera takes the two promenaders as a starting point for exploring the space and the people they encounter or line along the way. As discursive and visual research, "Pandemic Walk" deals with a time when a walk in the park was one of the most exciting things one could experience.

Starring (in alphabetical order): Tanya Abelson, Adrian de Alfonso Prieto-Puga, Paul Arambula, Anna Böckler, Ursula Böckler, Minna Büker, Jaana Davidjants, Octavio Garabello, Sofia Lomba, Maru Mushtrieva, Joanna Szproch.

UHD, 25 fps, 104min.

Character Book

The Character Book portrays the protagonists of the „Pandemic Walk“ video. The photos are a visual reflection on the time we spent with friends during the last 14 years.

21 x 29,7 cm, 200 pages, 174 images, color & bw.

Water colour drawings

The watercolour drawings visualise conversations and stories that are told during the Pandemic Walk.

29,7 x 42 cm, watercolour on paper.