Véronique Chance has a long-term interest in the representation of the body in which the activity of running plays a key part. Her practice has a strong relationship to performance, documentation, technology and the embodied dynamics of spectatorship, The runs Véronique Chance undertakes are performed in specific places along pre-determined routes. She mediates them to an audience live through mobile technology that tracks her journey as it is taking place and relays images of her viewpoint and location.
Running as a sustainable practice
Running is arguably one of the most sustainable forms of mobility practices. It requires only physical effort, relatively inexpensive clothing and a pair of trainers. A locative practice, it takes place in and can draw attention to, the outside environment and to themes of sustainability on a very basic human and fundamental level.
Running and physical and mental well-being
Running is also strongly associated with physical health and mental wellbeing, which Véronique Chance’s artwork also considers through paradoxical tensions of safety, risk, injury and care. Care is additionally understood in relation to paying attention to the places, spaces, and communities in which the work takes place. It is also attentive to how different communities will engage with the work. Véronique advocates slow running as a more inclusive non-competitive approach that counters normative ‘productive’ ideologies and emphasises a more sensory engagement. Technology enables the sharing of experiences to audiences in real time and with those unable to access particular locations.
Running Artfully
Véronique Chance has a multi-disciplinary practice as artist and academic. She lives in London and is Senior Lecturer and Course Director of MA Fine Art at Anglia Ruskin University (ARU),Cambridge .She is also co-founder of the Running Artfully Network (RAN), an international artist-led group, launched in 2021. Its aim is to reframe running as an artistic intervention to unpick our time of multiple global crises, and to create a more equitable and creative future.
