CYCLES: Stage 4: Chiavenna to Chur

An acquaintance of Petra’s joins us in Chiavenna, intent to cycle with us all the way to Kassel. As we say good-bye to our hosts at La Specola they offer us a gift, a locally crafted handmade wooden bowl. As it turns out we are the first Canadians to stay at their B&B. How incredibly thoughtful!

The three of us start out that morning with beautiful weather. This is the day we cycle up to the Passo dello Spluga a 2,113 metre high mountain pass. Near the top we stop in Montespluga at an inn and have a warm bowl of bean soup. Yummy and satisfying having spent that last half hour in rain and fog. Warmed up we head back out in the fog toward the peak of the pass and where we cross into Switzerland.

The weather eventually cleared and we had a beautiful ride in Switzerland into Chur. Accomplished 110km.

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Cycles

Cycles is an ongoing series of physical and virtual interventions that continues Cheryl Rondeau's exploration of the intersection between art and the everyday. Using the bike as the main mode of travel each intervention is fueled by determination and human-power.

Cycles projects:

the Route (Art Spin 08/2012)
43˚33'27"N 79˚35'24"W - Port Credit 2010
The Commute
Cycles 2009: Approaching Caribou Harbour
Cycles 2008: Toronto - Sudbury
Art Ride 2007

Physical endurance forms a central theme of the project. The use of the body in the artist’s displacement, its emphatic integration in the terrain, proposes a questioning of our perceptions of time and space in a world constantly shrinking within the virtual realm of cyberspace and ever-increasing air travel. Borders and geography are collapsed, disappearing from our collective memory. With this series of physical and virtual interventions Cheryl Rondeau pursues an investigation of the relationships between space and the body, gesture and the individual as well as the rupture between lived experience and its representation, so as to see and think differently.

Loaded with maps, camera, phone and notebook Rondeau logs her trouvailles and maps out her parcours. The Situationists were known to use walkie-talkies on their dérives. Similarly, she exploits today’s technology. Daily activities involve collecting ephemera, digital video and photography to map the geography of the experience and record the multiplicity of interstitial spaces between the departure and arrival points. Maintaining a record of the borders crossed and the landscapes traversed; while dealing with the elements and the fatigue that is at the core of long-distance cycling.
For more information: rondeau.cheryl@gmail.com

CYCLES

Stage 4: Chiavenna to Chur

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Cycles

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