Modos de aproximación al arte de caminar: Del mínimo rendimiento a la máxima libertad en cada paso

Abstract

Since the conceptual expansion of sculpture in the 1960s, walking has been shaped as an artistic practice. In contrast to the logics of production and consumption, artists like Richard Long and Hamish Fulton have turned walking into an act of resistance, where the journey matters more than the destination. Their approach does not seek to intervene in the landscape but to inscribe within it the ephemeral trace of experience, challenging the obsession with permanence and the commercialization of art. Francis Alÿs brings this poetics into the social sphere with projects like «When faith moves mountains», where collective effort and the metaphor of displacement acquire a critical meaning. In this context, the art of walking does not serve a utilitarian purpose but instead asserts the importance of process over outcome. Each step is an affirmation of freedom and an active resistance to the rhythms imposed by contemporary society.