PROBABLE DATE OF DEPARTURE: 2025.

 

PROBABLE PLACE OF DEPARTURE: French Guiana.

 

 

THE GOAL:

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- to walk from the Atlantic coast to the Pacific Ocean through the wildest areas of the Amazon jungle (excluding forbidden territories), following a meaningful trajectory drew beforehand. This path is a figurative conceptual drawing that will make sense in it's medium, which is the rainforest.

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THE RULES:

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- alone;
- exclusively on foot;
- pursuing an æsthetical purpose;
- questioning a philosophical concern.

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A FEW REASONS:

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- to celebrate the flesh I'm made of;

- to become the man that Diogenes of Sinope was seeking;

- as others leave to make the jihad;

- to obtain legitimacy;

- to prepare my death, to offer myself a not so bitter epilog;

- to finally be able to love myself.

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REMARKS:

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- there is no ecological, philanthropic, scientific or athletic aim;

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- I like artificial light, supermarkets, etc; the flow of urban traffic relaxes me more than one of a crystal-clear torrent;

 

- unlike Hamish Fulton, who tried to not leave any visible traces — or so

little — behind him, I accept the profaning nature of my passage;

 

- unlike Richard Long, nature isn’t central in my art. I use the harshness of nature as a tool to allow me to reach some psychic states;

 

- during this expedition, my days will be so repetitive that despite its vastness and my constant mobility, this jungle will quickly become as a cramped prison for me; the homogeneous luxuriance of its vegetation, as a desert;

 

- I'm gonna walk accompanied by mental projections of many friends and acquaintances of mine, people that I will summon to my liking for some speculative dialogues;

 

- the idea of this walk according to a geometrical rigid trajectory has been inspired to me by the title of a book by Mike Horn (Latitude zéro), as well as by my rectilinear crossing of the Salar de Uyuni;

 

- I am attentive to this belief, among the Khanty — Ugric people of which my mother descended from —, who asserts that paradise is only accessible by the souls of those who die a violent death; the souls of those who died in a mild way are forced to serve a severe god residing underground;

 

- it is false to assert that I have « nothing to lose ».