Walking backwards because the world is going in the wrong direction: An interview with performance artists

At the end of the Degrowth Cabaret at the ISEE Degrowth Conference in Oslo, Lavrenty and Russ started a backwards walk from Christiania, Oslo, to Christiania, Copenhagen, the self-proclaimed demilitarized freetown where the first International Assembly of the Degrowth Movement was held in 2018 and where they will arrive on the 25^th August. So far, they have walked 700km with passers by joining and walking part of their journey backwards with them when inspired along the way. In the fifth week of the walk, Sofia joined, and has walked over 200km already. On August 19^th, Degrowth.info talked to Lavrenty, Sofia and Russ, to learn more about this peculiar feat. 

Hello Lavrenty, Russ, and Sofia, could you give us some insight into your walk and why you're doing it?

Lavrenty: The short answer that we've been giving is we are going backwards because the world is going in the wrong direction. This is something that we say a lot when people ask us as we walk. And most of the time people agree right away and say, “Oh, yeah, I feel the same way.” I came up with this idea while studying degrowth at the Barcelona School (UAB). I thought that there was a lot of talk and research projects going on and there needed to be something more performative, more to do with the body. The body is not being used enough. So, among my peers and academics, I felt like this is a way to approach campaigning. I hoped it could inspire some of my co-students. So, it started on a very small scale, just thinking of them, and then grew out of that.

The Situationists and the Dadas are some of the artist-activists that inspire us. The three of us do public performance art on the street and so, I don’t recall the exact moment when this idea came up but it's quite natural considering that the street is our theater in a way. Indirectly, it is something that we have been preparing for our whole lives.

Sofia: Always a big lesson when performing in the streets, or the thing that I enjoy the most, is that people are going ahead with their day-to-day life, but they get this glitch, this slight disruption in their routine and I think that's important.

Russ: Walking backwards can be a very simple way to say even the most basic things. We have the power to change things that appear routine or natural. Regular people have the power to change so much.

What support have you met along the way?

Russ: We've met so many kind and generous people along the way. For the almost two months that we've been walking, there have been very few days when somebody hasn't gone out of their way to ask us, “Do you need anything?”,  give us food or invite us for Fika (a popular Swedish afternoon snack and coffee).

Lavrenty: We've had all forms of incredible hospitality from people from all walks of life, from a Thai Buddhist monastery to a professor of systems change from Stockholm university, to a beer maker, to kite surfers, to a theater light designer, to a builder with ancient techniques like woodworking.

Sofia: Walking backwards is a really good radar to find like-minded people.

Would you like to share a few key highlights?

Lavrenty: Every day is a highlight.

Russ is very proud of the four kilograms of cheese that he found in a dumpster. We've been trying to live on the international poverty line of $3/person/day and the only way to do this in Scandinavia is to dumpster dive. We are also doing this to raise awareness about food waste, which is enormous here, unfortunately, as everywhere in Europe.

Russ: It is illegal to dumpster dive, but there've been very few occasions where we've been told to leave a place or not dumpster dive. 

Lavrenty: We’ve been on national and regional news in Norway, on the national radio in Sweden and they never censored our stories of dumpster-diving. They reported it in a very encouraging manner, almost encouraging others to do so as well, saying it's a good thing because of food waste. Scandinavia has got great freedom of speech.

Sofia: My highlights have been the people we met: the older woman who walked backwards with us and showed us her drawings; people hugging us, clapping from their balconies, all the love. A lot of daily doses of serotonin from people and nature. Singing and sleeping in the woods and by rivers restores us after the walk.

Lavrenty: Another highlight is the moments of absurdity, seeing the world from a completely different perspective, backwards through the woods without a road, without a path.

Sofia: We witness the shifting of timelines and parallel realities of life when we reach a place and someone's like, “I've been waiting for you. It's so meaningful to have you here because we recognise the effort.” Rather than rocking up in a car.

What are some of the lessons that you've learnt along the way?

Lavrenty: My master’s programme at UAB is critical of the way that people live in the Global North, implying that they are unaware of current issues and unwilling to change. However, speaking to ordinary people about what they are doing differently to make this world a better place, I learnt that people are extremely aware, extremely present and spend a lot of time, energy, effort and money to empower their own communities, the world around them and beyond. Now, we must focus our energy on the elites and the power structures among the elites that drive senseless consumerism and capitalist driven ideologies.

As I was doing this walk, I really realised that the best way for everyday people to resist is to consume less. Once we reduce our consumption, it is incredibly empowering to choose not between products, but whether we are going to purchase something at all. Repair, trade with your neighbors, use and buy locally, avoid the mantra “as much as possible”. This will make a huge difference.

We also need to unite transculturally. Some people say, “Oh, I don't fly anymore”, so much that I reply, “Please go, fly and meet new people, you will become so much more aware.”

Russ: I have also learnt the importance of being conscious of what is attached to the things you are purchasing, where you're putting your resources and how that affects things at a larger scale. If you're not aware or conscious of what the company is using this money for or where their money is going, then you might be party to unethical behaviors or unethical things that larger corporations are doing.

Sofia: Overall it is a big lesson on the individual power that we hold to change things. We are definitely the majority: people who want a better world. If we focus on the top down powers, on the power of the 1%, on the power of war, then we diminish all the other kinds of powers, like the power of solidarity, the power of our own vibrations to radiate, inspire and change things, the power of nature. There's so many different levels and powers which can grow if you put your attention on them rather than focusing on oppressive systems. 

Are there any disappointments that you've faced or limitations?

Sofia: When I started, my first week was really hard on the calves and I was really slow. I felt the limitations of my body. I'm used to feeling strong and athletic, but I was really like, “Damn!” But then, after the 7th day, something shifted.

Lavrenty: The only set back I have faced is having gone through two pairs of shoes already.

We have the Allemannsrette in Sweden and Norway which is a universal right to forage, make fires, and camp on public and private land as long as you're something like a hundred meters away from a dwelling. It's been incredible to stay somewhere and not feel anxious that somebody will come and ask you to leave. We've been so relaxed and met lovely people. Honestly, this has been a roaring success.

Sofia: There are also so many shelters that you can access for free that have a fireplace and once we even found electricity and water, a good roof.

Could you give me an overview of a-day-in-the-life?

Lavrenty: We wake up around nine. We have coffee, oats with foraged blueberries, blackberries and apples and dumpster dive bananas. We stretch, talk, do some of this Instagram business and email news outlets. Around noon we start walking.

Sofia: During the walk, we have a practice of always stopping and really engaging with the people that talk to us.

Lavrenty: Francois Schneider, the supervisor for this walk and my thesis, did a similar walk with a donkey for a year and we agreed that we would engage with people and really try to find out what people think about consumerism, and promote degrowth.

Food is a big part of the trip because you need a lot to keep going. Since we are not buying whatever we need but being very conscious about where food is coming from, it takes up a lot of our time. Lunch is whatever we might have at that time. At nine o'clock we reach a place and we always have a warm dinner. In 53 days we have not had a day without a hot meal. It is usually rice and lentils.

Sofia: With foraged nettles and mugwort and sometimes potatoes and dandelions.

Russ: We even find chanterelle mushrooms.

Sofia: We sleep late usually, around 2am since it takes a while to collect the wood to cook and we don’t have many pots.

Lavrenty: It's a habit from when we started walking, when we had about three hours of nighttime in Norway, so it made a lot of sense. Now sunset is at nine but we're still in this habit. 

Is there a message you'd like to leave degrowth.info’s readers?

Lavrenty: We just started a fundraiser and it would be really great to let people know that we are currently in the last week of our walk and raising money for an NGO, Hihiri Pipiri which is a grassroots organisation that we are all a part of and that empowers artists to be change makers in their own communities. Donations will help support Palestinian families, war relief in Congo and the indigenous Yanomami people of Brazil. It would be fantastic if people could spread the news and support.

Another call to action is that we should make consumption unpopular, refuse to consume, buy things on the grey market, and encourage others to do the same. We should make shifting the economy away from corporations fashionable.

Sofia: We have the power to change our little habits. Community and support systems are crucial.

Russ: Feel confident that you can make a change and that we are united in this effort.

Lavrenty: None of us prepared for this trip. None of us did any extra exercise. We didn't bring a tent with us, we're just using tarps. Most of our equipment is second-hand and not specialised nor extra light. You can decide tomorrow to start walking backwards and just do it. You'll get the hang of it. The mind and body are very adaptive. We are truly capable of so much more than sometimes we think.

Sofia: We are lucky to be able to engage in pleasure-based activism to stop ourselves from burning out. Being together in a pleasure-oriented and happy way we can make change.

Lavrenty: Spreading joy.

Thank you so much for such an inspiring interview, maybe I will walk backwards to the library now!

Lavrenty, Sofia and Russ have organised a parade to celebrate their arrival in Copenhagen on the 25^th August and invite you to join them. The parade will begin at Bakken at 11:30am, pass Superkilen Park at 5:00pm, Vestindisk Pakhus at 6:30pm, before finishing in Christiania at 7:00pm.