Who owns the city? Who walks these streets?

As part of our Your Space Or Mine (https://www.buildhollywood.co.uk/your-space-or-mine/)project, we have been collaborating with walking and performance artist Alisa Oleva (https://alisaoleva.com/), who has created a series of urban art walks over the past few years. In September, Alisa is heading to Cardiff to make a walk that responds to the city’s fabric and its paths.

Alisa says: “Bringing walks to new cities allows us to explore how differently each city was wired and what its streets could tell us if we walked them together — noticing, playing, asking, and listening. In Cardiff, I will spend time creating an art walk that I will lead, as well as working together with a local artist to lead a walk of their own, sharing two perspectives — that of a local and that of a visitor.”

In Cardiff, Alisa has invited local artist Beth Greenhalgh (https://bethgreenhalgh.wordpress.com/about/) to create the second walk. Both walks will explore the secrets and whispers of the city and what we can discover if we look closely and slow down.

You are invited to join one walk or both. Free to attend and open to all who are curious to explore walking and the city in a playful, critical, thoughtful, and poetic way.

Sunday 27th WALK with Beth Greenhalgh (https:// https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/walk-cardiff-tickets-1998220150260?aff=oddtdtcreator)

Walk with Alisa Oleva

Can you notice how your footsteps sound as you step on different surfaces? Can you trace the wall of this building with your finger? If you read aloud every word you notice along the way, what story is the city trying to tell you? What are the undercity currents, and what messages are encrypted in the cracks and scratches of the urban surfaces? If you follow the wind, where will it lead you? Where does this city start, and where does it end?

For the walk in Cardiff, I am inviting you to notice what is hiding in between the gaps if we look closer, and to listen to the rhythm of the city’s heartbeat. We will follow various walking prompts to tune into the city and its soundscapes, to follow its desire lines and hidden paths, and to map its corners and edges.

About Alisa Oleva

Alisa Oleva is a walking artist based in London who works within the spaces and streets of the city, exploring the politics of public space; how the city moves us and how we move it; urban choreography and urban archaeology; traces and surfaces; borders and inventories; intervals and silences; passages and cracks. She creates one-to-one and collective performances, walking scores, personal and intimate encounters, gatherings, soft parkour sessions, walkshops, soundwalks, and audiowalks.

Access information

The walks will take place on pavements and in public spaces in Cardiff, and the pace will be inclusive of all who attend. Each walk will last about 2 hours. There are toilet facilities at the start point. If you have any specific access requirements, need more information, or have any questions about this walk, please email alisaoleva@gmail.com, and we will do our best to help.

Description supplied by the event organiser.