camp walks: The circus

Monday, August 3, 2009

The circus

A few days ago I went to visit the circus Fantasia. My friends of the acrobat group Clinch are touring with them. Every evening the circus sets up camp on vacation parks and campgrounds in Holland.

Their wagons are busses and caravans not traditional circus wagons, which are to expensive to buy, maintain, store and transport.

Circus

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Introduction

I am staying on the citynomad camp where I lived 14 years ago. The other day we reminisced about our old camp, a waste land overgrown with trees on a canal in the city. This camp was magical, we had cleared paths among the willow and birch trees and small clearings for the wagons. It had a feeling of movement, more of a camp, people came and went, new wagons arrived..

The current camp is man made and very stationary. The wagons have become 'buildings' and are locked into their spot by trees, shacks, and other infrastructure (social, cultural and political). When we arrived on this camp it was bare pasture. The wind howled around the wagons and one had no privacy. Now, the wagons are hidden among the trees allowing for privacy and protection from the wind. What struck me the most after 14 years of absents there are lawns, which are mowed using a lawnmower. On the old camp and in the early years of this camp I would clear around my wagon using a scythe. The movement of mowing is straight, lines. The movement of a scythe is circular. I go for morning walks on the camp, contemplating this difference. During these walks I take photographs. This blog will be updated almost daily until 25 of August.

Enjoy!

Reflections 1

My initial meditation was on the movement of the lawnmower compared with the scythe, lines and vectors. I mentioned the other day to friend who lives in an upscale part of town that I spend an hour and half mowing the lawn, using the size of ones lawn as an humorous indication of missed placed status.
I have always found that mowing the lawn is a gesture that implies order ,creates visibility and acknowledges that noting is hidden. Where the scythe applied on in the chaos of tall grass is making of a space that will grow over and hide what was there.
The exciting thing of this camp is that it has both, lines and vectors. The infra structure of the three bare pastures, were not designed but evolved in time, revealing the individual quarks of the inhabitants. The photographs are about the evolving of a place.

camp walks

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