Maider López.
Walk the river

Walk the River is a participatory performance that brings people together to make the hidden Senne river in Brussels visible and audible. Through a collective walk along a stretch of its historical course, participants evoke and pay homage to the presence of the river that is now covered but once flowed through the city.

The walk, both a live action and a sound archive, becomes a dynamic cartography of sound and memory, a portrait of the Senne brought to life by the temporary human river created collectively by the participants. In this way, the performance restores presence to what has been lost, and invites reflection on urban transformation, collective memory, and the invisibility of natural systems beneath our feet.

Historically, the Senne was covered and diverted over the 19th and 20th centuries due to pollution and flood control. Today, the river flows underground for six kilometers, even if its course is largely unknown to those who live above it. Walk the River responds to this disconnection with a gesture of shared reactivation—reclaiming space through listening, walking, and remembering.

The sound of the river will be recorded at five different points along its course, prior to the action. One microphone will be submerged near the riverbank, another deeper in the middle of the river; additional recordings will be made where insects are present, outside the water where the river flows slowly, and near the river gate where it runs quickly. Each participant will carry one of these recordings (slow water, fast water, insects, underwater creatures, or general underwater sound), and all together we will sound as the river does—a fragmented portrait that, through our collective movement, unifies into the symphony of the river.

This performance was conceived by artist Maider López, whose practice often disrupts spatial norms, inviting us to experience common spaces in new and rewarding ways. Her interventions in spaces, situations and architecture often involve the viewer as an active participant and can take the unexpected to mischievously highlight or alter familiar environments.

For inquiries about the walk, email europalia.river@gmail.com.

Commission EUROPALIA ESPAÑA