The REVERSE experience at Sciences Po Aix
On the occasion of the European Heritage Days, on Saturday 17 and Sunday 18 September 2022, an audio walk was invited in the buildings of Sciences Po Aix. REVERSE is a proposal by Belgian performance artist Johannes Bellinkx, which has already been realized in the Netherlands, Belgium, Austria, Denmark, England, Norway, Switzerland, Germany, Hungary and Spain.It is as part of the fifth Biennial Season of Art and Culture of Aix-en-Provence that Lieux Publics organized this immersive experience in partnership with the city.
What is it about?REVERSE consists of discovering places by walking backwards with headphones on the ears broadcasting sounds, soundscapes. By abandoning daily habits, by moving differently it is “a completely new physical experience, in which looking forward allows you to look back, and focusing on goals gives way to the unexpected“.
Partner of Sciences Po Aix’s cultural season, the École supérieure d’art d’Aix-en-Provence Félix Ciccolini was also the starting point of the experience. The participants then crisscrossed the city, the gardens of the Pavillon Vendôme, discovered the stage of the Théâtre de l’Archevêché, and crossed the corridors of Sciences Po Aix and its Bruno Étienne amphitheatre.
Find the artistic performance in pictures and discover the testimonials of two Sciences Po Aix students:
“The soundscape is amazing. For example, I study at Sciences Po Aix, and when you go in the Bruno Etienne amphitheatre, there is a sound that you know by heart but that is transformed into art. The opening of fields is also extraordinary. We walk in a city where there are lots of people, and as you are upside down and you are the only one to be upside down it is an experience of introspection that is crazy because you feel more at all part of the whole. That’s what’s really great and what I personally remember.” – Carla
“It intrigued me a lot to walk backwards, and I really didn’t regret it. It was pretty amazing. When you take off the helmet, you feel like you’re a little stunned. We went through all the emblematic places of Aix that we know and it’s really great. It was great to see the city from that angle. For example, when we arrive in the Bruno Etienne amphitheatre, we do not expect it and it is revealed in front of us, ditto for the front door of Sciences Po Aix, or for other buildings such as the Vendôme Pavilion.” – Elea