Walking is a tactic which allows us to move through the city together—to follow a river—cutting through both human and ecological zones of riparian cohabitation.
We have practiced walking alongside activists from the Black movement in São Paulo, asking for permission to step gently on the grounds of the Saracura River. We’ve walked in small groups to sense the territory, to trace the river, and to come together in difference. We’ve used mapping and filming techniques to create walks that can be followed. We’ve developed walking as a pedagogical and transdisciplinary tactic—one that brings together activists, artists, and academics. And we’ve engaged in sound walks to activate the senses and awaken the poetics of place.
If walking can be understood as an aesthetic practice—in the sense that it inscribes a line upon a defined space—then this video captures a walk that traces an (imaginary) line upon an (invisible) one: the course of the Saracura River through the Saracura Valley, in Bixiga, São Paulo.
The short route, both filmed and walked, invites the viewer to traverse an urban territory—starting at the river’s spring and ending at the archaeological site of the Saracura Quilombo. It is a guided (and mediated) tour through a non-human perspective: a 360° video led by an other-than-human guide—the Saracura River itself.
