Movement

By definition, movement suggests a condition of dexterity, mobility, flux, journey, and transition. Movement’s instinctive opposite is static, paused. This suggests that things that are moving must be placeless, without tangible roots or anchorage – yet the opposite can be true. Many things move within defined patterns, shifting only to return to their point of origin, or shifting physically while non-physical threads remain – memory and resonance.

In contemporary life, movement is a recurring character, an economic and political reality, perhaps an obsession. Movement is closely analysed and broadcast, and we scrutinise the movement of everything, from people to resources, borders, geographies and systems.

The movement of people in particular is not a new phenomenon, but is occurring today in unprecedented numbers. Whether it is economic promise of another place, persecution and conflict or the changing face of the environment, a range of factors has led to over 65 million people in the world being displaced according to the UNHCR (or one in every 113 people globally). The enormity of this, and the resulting militarisation of borders, has led to a philosophical, cultural and political crisis around the world as the politics of mobility are both debated and experienced firsthand by more than ever before.

Movement has and will always exist. In this current context it can be unsettling, even terrifying but movement, still, can represent something that is essential, graceful, fulfilling, and sustaining. Nature, humanity, ideas, the world within and beyond us. It is a defining characteristic of life.