RETURN OF THE GO-BETWEEN'S - CONTINUUM FROM THE RHIEN/RHINE RETURN TO THE THAMES - 1ST NOVEMBER

The Go-Between's completed their intention by carrying water from the Rhine/Rhein to the Thames in Oxford on November 1st 2007. The return journey and mingling of the waters of both cities - in both cities brought with it a time of reflection concerning the work, its focus and possibilities for future actions. On the return journey we sat in adjoining seats with two people from England who were peace activists, who had for many years worked to highlight and make visible alternative possibilities to combat between nations in conflict. They created simple, peaceful actions that have become a mirror for societies to see themselves and reflect. As we carried our precious cargo of life giving waters across invisible boundaries, we mused on the subtle differences between countries constructed through human intervention. The rivers of Thames and Rhine/Rhein flow across borders created by human intervention, over millennia, merging with the salty waters of the collective sea. All waters once again beginning their transmogrification, becoming mist, cloud, steam, snow, rain and fog, soaking into and through the land and flowing towards the sea once more as rivers. Our action as Go-Between's carrying liquid in small delicate uncorked glass vials around our necks between Oxford and Bonn, accentuated the preciousness of the water that humanity seems to take so much for granted. The Go-Betweens have spoken since returning, of further actions of exchanging life giving waters, thinking about space, boundaries, being on the move and how we inhabit land. In remembrance that humans are carers of water; it is not ours, it is the ‘jewel’ most precious to all of life. photographer, Kay Sentance The Go-Betweens returned from their trip to Bonn, transporting water as fluid messengers from The Rhine/Rhein. The journey culminated in Oxford, where they deposited the water into The Thames. Witnesses were invited to walk and participate in the ritual and join The Go-Betweens in a silent walk, inviting communication through action and intention and overriding the need for oral communication. Through this ritual form of exchange and transfer, the artist’s see themselves as embodying their role of messenger as they Go-Between countries. These actions of ceremony, ritual, collection and exchange, explore how we honour water as a resource and raises questions concerning cross national connections, borders, space, place and language. The Go-Betweens invite you to witness this action. Join them at Magdalen Road Bridge, Oxford at 10.30am on Thursday November 1st, for a silent walk taking approximately one hour. 'The conversation of the gods!- I didn't resent or feel aggrieved because I couldn't understand it. I was the smallest of the planets, and I carried messages between them and I couldn't always understand that was in order, too; they were something in a foreign language - star talk' From The Go-Between LP Hartley

GLIMPSES OF THE BONN WALK - THE FRAUEN MUSEUM TO THE RHINE AND RETURN

photography by: Diana Bell Hilary invites a friend who has lived in Bonn all her life on the silent walk. She tells us she has not heard Bonn in this way before. Those who witness, discuss the importance of water and the state of our environment. We think about the work in relation to water as a resource. We hear a new city in silence.

TRAVERSING THE STREETS OF BONN

Sine our arrival in Bonn, we spent time trying to find our way into the walk to The Rhine from The Frauen Museum. Having a map helps but its more about feeling yourself into the walk, noticing things about the public spaces, seeing how it works for us and a walking group, what it sounds like, how you traverse traffic lights with a group walking behind you, how you work with the unfamiliar. The work starts to make more sense to us as we begin to move more towards a sense of exchanging waters rather than just carrying water. finding the way Outside the Frauen Museum, turn left, left again onto Heerstrasse, then immediate right onto Wolfstrasse, past pink geraniums, the wolf on the house front and the angels, past Peterstrasse, cross to Breitestrasse, then left and down to Schutzenstrasse, over the cobbles, then left past the french shop past the anarchist sign and art sign through the alley way to the lights, cross past the church and telephone box, past the building on the right with 5 yellow boxes, with one in each window, cross over at the lights down Wachsbleiche, along the wall past Beethoven building, then cross the road by the pigeons to the slip road down to the Rhine

A VOYAGE TO BROBDINGNAG

second part of our travels On the 23rd October our journey from Oxford began with water from the Thames, we carried the water traveled through The UK, France, Belgium, finally arriving in Bonn after an eleven hour journey.

WE TRAVEL TO BONN TOMORROW - 23rd October 2007

CONSIDERING WALKING

How often do we walk in silence as a group - how often do we follow not knowing where we are going but having faith to go anyway, how often do we walk; our senses heightened by the changing time, how often do we walk slowly against the tide of the everyday speed of life, how often do we walk and consider, walk in simplicity, walk and see, walk our beginning and end as the same and travel through the in-between.

REQUEST TO THE GO-BETWEENS

THE GO-BETWEENS BEGIN IN OXFORD - 19th October 2007

photography by: Hugh Macdonald Dressed in Lincoln green, staff in hand, we wait on Magdalen Bridge for the church clock to strike the hour of departure. As it sounds, we begin our walk towards the Thames. The gathered witnesses follow as we tread the High Street in our Mercury shoes. The busyness of the High Street highlights the slowness of our pace, highlights our intention, highlights our silent focus. We turn into Magpie Lane and the new and age old ceremonies of Oxford carry our action. Streets trod for centuries echo our foot fall, our silence allowing us to hear and see more clearly. Into Christ Church quod and across the meadow walking under the arching boughs of aged poplars while cattle graze the grass of this city centre meadow. Witnesses follow as we pass humans in everyday doings of walking and sitting talking time to feel the day. As we come to the water of the Thames, named the Isis here, we turn to walk with the flow of the river, it is brown and swollen after rain, and its body charges it speedily towards the open sea. Arriving at the site of ceremony we mark the alignment with the stars on the gritty path and then stand within the markings, aware now of heaven and earth. We fill our glass flasks with water from the moving body and turn to face the direction we will travel overland and the direction of the flowing waters. We will take this water to the Rhine where it flows through Oxford’s twin city Bonn. Carrying the liquid on cords around our necks, we leave the circle and return towards Magdalen Bridge, walking beside the Cherwell as it flows past us and into the Isis. We return to the busyness of the city, along Rose Street and finally to our starting point. We will repeat this action on October 26 in Bonn, when we will exchange the life giving waters and on November 1, when we return with the waters from the Rhine to the Isis.

GO-BETWEENS BEGIN

On Friday we begin our journey meeting at Magdalen Bridge in Oxford to walk in silence to the Thames-Isis to collect water which we will carry to Bonn. During our research we were exhilarated to find that the Thames connection to the Rhine goes back to glacial times, when Britain was connected to Europe. During this period The Thames was a tributary of the River Rhine, probably flowing along a line slightly north of it current course through the Vale of St Albans, through Essex and across the low lying lands of the Rhine Estuary. In about 12,000 BC, temperatures slowly started to rise again, ice began to melt, sea levels rose and engulfed these low lying lands leaving a series of small marshy islands and a low ridge of firmer ground in the area we now call the Dogger Bank. In about 6,500 BC, the water of the North Sea finally rose over the Dogger Bank and broke through the remaining and broke through the remaining ridge of land between Kent and Northern France. The Straits of Dover were created and Britain became an island.

THE THAMES-ISIS MEETS THE CHERWELL

Oxford was built up around the meeting of the River Cherwell and River Thames, also called the Isis. Isis is a goddess in Egyptian mythology. She was most prominent mythologically as the wife and sister of Osiris and mother of Horus, and was worshipped as the archetypal wife and mother.

THE GO-BETWEEN'S BEGIN THEIR JOURNEY SOON

To witness this action and participate in a silent walk for the Oxford part of the Go-Between. Meet at Magdalen Bridge, Oxford at 14.00 on Friday, 19th October, 2007 <> To witness this action and participate in a silent walk for the Bonn part of the Go-Between. Meet at the Frauenmuseum, where we will be leaving at 14.30 on Friday October 26, 2007, Frauenmuseum, Im Krausfeld 10 53111 Bonn The Go-Between will begin in Oxford, where we will collect water from the Thames in silence amongst fellow city dwellers, transporting the water as fluid messengers over land to Bonn. On arrival in the city of Bonn we will exchange the water of the Thames for the water of the Rhine. Thus the cities and their inhabitants will become part of an exchange of life giving water aided by the Go-Betweens. Inhabitants of Oxford and Bonn are invited to witness the ritual, inviting communication through action and intention, overriding the need for oral communication. The work will end when we return to Oxford and deposit the water from the Rhine into the Thames. Through this ritual form of exchange and transfer, we embody the role of messenger as we Go-Between countries. These actions, the collecting and exchanging of water between the two cities, raise questions concerning the notion of a cross national connections, encompassing the idea of the 'between space' of travel through countries' borders, land and language. 'The conversation of the gods!- I didn't resent or feel aggrieved because I couldn't understand it. I was the smallest of the planets, and I carried messages between them and I couldn't always understand that was in order, too; they were something in a foreign language - star talk' From The Go-Between LP Hartley.

MERCURY THE MESSENGER AND TRICKSTER

Mercury is the god of travel; often seen as the trickster and carrier of messages, his task is to act as a go-between. Hermes is the Greek version of the Winged Messenger, he devises a plan to steal to steal the herd of cows from his brother, by turning their hooves around, so that as he leads them away, their trail appears to be heading in the opposite direction, thus his reputation as the trickster is born. In The Go-Between we have developed shoes for walking which have had the heels transferred to the front of the shoes. As we travel over land to Bonn our feet will move forward, our shoes will leave prints as though they are already returning, masking the beginning and end of the action and creating a continuum. The realtionahip between The Rhine and the Thames Since approximately 600,000 years ago six major Ice Ages have occurred, in which sea level dropped 120 m, & much of the continental margins became exposed. In the Early Pleistocene, the Rhine followed a course to the northwest, through the present North Sea. During the so-called Elsterien glaciation (~420,000 yr BP, marine oxygen isotope stage 12) the northern part of the present North Sea was blocked by the ice, & a large lake developed that overflowed through the English Channel. This caused the Rhine's course to be diverted through the English Channel. Since then, during glacial times, the river mouth was located near Brest (France), & rivers like the Thames & the Seine became tributaries to the Rhine. During interglacials, when sea level rose to approximately the present level, the Rhine built a delta in what is now the Netherlands. At the end of the Pleistocene, the lower Rhine flowed roughly west through the Netherlands & then to the southwest, through the English Channel, & finally to the Atlantic Ocean. The English & Irish Channels, the Baltic Sea & the North Sea were still dry land, mainly because sea level was approximately 120 m lower than today. At about 5000 BC, flooding & erosion began to open the English Channel.

POINT A - POINT B - POINT C

View Larger Map point A - Oxford point B - Bonn
We will wear green We will carry water from the 2 rivers We will wear heels on the front of our shoes We will travel by train We will walk to the rivers We will invite others to follow We will observe and encounter we will enter 4 countries and we will return

research

The Go-Between was a project based on an ongoing dialogue, emerging out of the twinning of Oxford and Bonn. On hearing we would be showing work at The Frauenmuseum in Bonn; October 2007, we decided to use this starting point to examine the notion of exchange. We have collaborated on a number of projects in the past and favour working in non art spaces, often interfacing with the public. The journey to Bonn from Oxfordshire became the stage from which to develop the work. After reading the novel The Go-Between by L.P Hartley, we became involved in an exploration of the notion of the messenger. In the novel, a young boy called Leo becomes a secret "go-between" for Marian Maudsley and a nearby tenant farmer, Ted Burgess. This action of delivering and and exchange became the focus for the work.