In March 2018, Yann Marussich was invited to take part of the Arctic Action Festival's artists residencies which are held all along the year. “Concrete walk” is a performance that was carried out on in the city of Longyearbyen in Svalbard, where temperatures in March drop to between -15 and -25°C. Any endeavour on the island is carried out slowly; any outing is tiresome and complicated. The cold puts the brakes on daily life. For this performance, concrete was tediously dried and shaped into cubes, which Yann Marussich then wore on his feet. With thirty-two kilos on each foot, he walked on ice, wandered arduously using a shovel as a crutch. “Concrete Walk” is the third part in a series on concrete which Yann Marussich initiated in December 2017. The artist aims to carry out some kind of complete study of concrete, covering the substance’s toxicity for the environment and the human body as well as its possible viable alternatives. Concrete exerts a form of brutal and morbid oppression on the living. Hence, the artist adopts the position of the oppressed, but his whole body of work consists of separating himself from the image. He is no longer the image; he is within the image, within the substance. He is inside a substance and no longer inside the image. He is the one who lives beneath and beyond the image. He is the one who survives, the one who goes beyond concrete, who escapes it and frees himself from it. He is the one who manages to live.

Conference by Yann Marussich, March 27 mars at 19:30
Performance:
"Concrete Walk" by Yann Marussich, March 28 mars at 18:00
Photo: Anthon Astron