PUBLIC STUDIO (Elle FLANDERS & Tamira SAWATZKY)

BRUCE TRAIL, 2017

The project

The Bruce Trail is Canada’s oldest and longest walking trail at a length of nearly 900 kilometres, roughly the distance between Calais and Marseille. Running along the top of a geological feature known as the Niagara Escarpment, the trail is a place that is at the intersection of an array of treaty lands; of peoples who have inhabited it over millennia; of plant and animal species that have existed here for millions of years; and a geological stratum that has formed over eras. For millennia, artists, writers and philosophers have used walking as a method to produce knowledge and have adopted walking as a practice making the connections between movement and thought. In 2017 Public Studio walked the Bruce Trail to connect back to the land itself and remind us that we are part of something larger and that we depend on the land to sustain us.