PAOLO MACCAGNO
You do not have to be good.
Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,
the world offers itself to your imagination
Wild geese
It is not irritating to be where one is.
It is only irritating to think one
would like to be somewhere else
Lecture on Nothing
Praise of the desert
I am a Feldenkrais teacher, anthropologist (PhD) and marathoner. Great humans as poet Mary Oliver and musician John Cage inspire me of a different way of being in the world. Not having to be good and learning to do nothing are attractive openings onto an unfamiliar territory. This liminal place feels like a desert which offers cracks of hope to walk through these walls.
My runs come from this territory of the unknown.
Running is dwelling poetically
get in touch:
maccagno.paolo@gmail.com
or find me at:
www.runforever.org.uk
www.abacada.org.uk
or scroll down
Enjoy the desert
If you want to go in a place that you don’t know, you have to take the way that you don’t know
St. John of the Cross
My path
After fifteen years as an architect, a quote by Heidegger in my student notes, saying: “only if we are capable of dwelling, only then can we build” signed a turning point in my life. I stopped with architecture and started running marathons! A crazy idea that changed many things in myself and in my life. After undertaking different trainings (anthropology 2010-2013, Feldenkrais method ® 2011-2015 and philosophical practices – Philo 2009-2014) I completed a PhD in anthropology (Through these walls. Steps to an anthropology of the limit –2019 supervised by Prof. Tim Ingold and Dr. Jo Vergunst) and took an independent path for developing experimental projects between art, anthropology, education (in academic and non-academic contexts) inspired by my passion for running marathons and its educational potential through the idea of the wall (of the marathoner) as limit.
The anthropology of the limit
My life and research concentrates into the notion of limit from the unique perspective of movement opening up a direction of inquiry into the anthropology of the limit. This path started with my passion for running marathons where I encountered the limit of the ʻwall of the marathonerʼ (around the 35th km runners can hit a wall of fatigue). This experience takes the individual into a ‘no man’s land’ to cross a desert and face emptiness, and possibly opens to a new sense of life. The limit posed by the wall shakes up established and rigid frameworks of value by making the world ductile. As with the physical phenomenon of boiling, where bubbles of air coexist with liquid water and where matter becomes malleable, the wall sets a threshold where the individual feels precarious and exposed to transformation. It works as an unlearning practice by providing awareness and offering an experience that potentially reshapes our conception of self, freedom and intentionality, making us realize our interdependence with the world. Looking at other fields of knowledge (education, ecology, evolutionary biology and mathematics), my exploration shows how the limit, rather than being a border or a separating line, is a space with high educational potential, which allows one to become exposed and to “cut through the world”.
The wall
The wall of the marathoner determined an existential turn on myself. After an in-depth anthropological study of this phenomenon and a following dedicated monograph, Lungo lento. Maratona e pratica del limite (Maccagno 2015), I decided to work on the idea of the wall as a generative frame to imagine new projects conceived as practices of the limit. These projects take the form of philosophical practices leading out along paths of awareness where the limit is a condition to make possible existentially relevant experiences, opening exploratory paths of inquiry in human life. Within this frame, they are conceived as “beautiful actions” in the sense highlighted by eco-philosopher Naess (1993) and intended as creative and artistic forms of inquiry that investigate new possibilities of freedom in a neoliberal era. Through these “beautiful actions” I hope to expand knowledge beyond the institutional bounds of the academy, and to open it up to the crucible of lives lived with others in the midst of the anarchy of life.
Pathways of awareness
As an anthropologist and Feldenkrais teacher (somatic educational method) I work with people (often vulnerable) in educational as well as in marginal contexts such as prison. I have used the focus on limit to illuminate topics of public debate such as freedom, self and subjectivity, education, health, environment and more recently death. The overall of this work takes the form of educational courses, workshops and performances and results in different outcomes such as academic and non academic publications, conferences and public presentations, exhibitions, films. Most of all it fosters and follows pathways of awareness.
Experimental projects
Walking Pilgrimages IN and OUT
One year course (August 2022-June 2023) walking pilgrimages to the body-self (IN) and to the Dee River (OUT) exploring boundaries between inside and outside through the Feldenkais method.
Doing nothing
Six months course in movement and awareness through the Feldenkrais method exploring musician John Cage’s Lecture on Nothing.
Becoming animal
Six months course in movement and awareness through the Feldenkrais method exploring the evolution of patterns of movement in humans and in other living species. The course is inspired by environmental philosopher David Abram and his book Becoming Animal.
Running with Salmon
A songline along the River Dee – Scotland
Initial stages of the project gathering interest from local communities and institutions. Runs, walks and camping along the Dee.
See video Running with salmon
Whiteout
An exploration of the disorienting meteorological phenomenon of whiteout through movement. 5 Feldenkrais workshops and an art performance. 140 people involved in 6 different educational institutions in Italy and UK. Funding from Citymoves Dance Agency (Aberdeen). Whiteout was presented the 20th October 2016 at the Festival for contemporary dance, DanceLive 2016 in Aberdeen and the 28th April 2017 Visualising Practices across Art and Science, University of Aberdeen.
Running North
A song-line in the wilderness. Shetland, solo run, full moon, solstice, 11 – 22 June 2016. University of Aberdeen, Dept of Anthropology (UK) – CAI Italian Alpine Club (IT). Development Trust Funding and independent crowd funding
Running Walls
Marathon running in prison
Educational project of pedagogy of resilience – anthropological research on body and movement
Prison of Peterhead – Scotland (UK): January – June 2016. In collaboration with Familiesoutside (NGO-Edinburgh), NHS funding.
Prison of Bollate – Milan (IT): January 2013 – June 2014. In collaboration with Bambinisenzasbarre (NGO-Milan). Best prize at the Milano Marathon Award 2014.
Selected publications
Maccagno, P., 2016. Solitudine esposta. Magazzino di Filosofia, A10 (28), pp. 91-114
Maccagno, P., 2015. Running walls: the performance of the limit in prison. Scottish Journal of Performance, 2(2), pp. 33-59
Maccagno, P. 2022. Am I vulnerable if I identify with the Earth? Thoughts while running.[Online] Available at:https://www.thebarnarts.co.uk/article/am-i-vulnerable-if-i-identify-with-the-earth-thoughts-while-running
Maccagno, P., 2020. Qualcosa eccede, La Repubblica [Online] Available at: https://www.repubblica.it/sport/running/storie/2021/01/16/news/running_perche_corriamo_1_qualcosa_eccede_chi_corre_lo_sente_-282874521/
Maccagno, P., 2020. Making peace with gravity, The Barn [Online] Available at:
https://www.thebarnarts.co.uk/article/making-peace-with-gravity
Maccagno, P., 2020. Non ci sono ponti, La Repubblica [Online] Available at: https://www.repubblica.it/sport/running/storie/2020/11/04/news/runner-273075062/
Maccagno, P., 2020. Come aria, immaginare la morte. Libera Uscita [Online] Available at: https://www.associazioneliberauscita.it/online/articoli/come-aria-immaginare-la-morte/
Maccagno, P., 2017. Guidare libertà. Amica Sofia magazine, A12 (1), pp. 20-22
Maccagno, P., 2016. Through these walls. Like the wind, 10, pp. 33-35
Maccagno, P., 2016. Running North. La Repubblica [Online] Available at: http://www.repubblica.it/sport/running/storie/2016/12/17/news/running_north_shetland_corsa_nord_liberta_-154313385/
Maccagno P. Running with Salmon, life at the limit of extinction. ASA 2021 – Responsibility, St. Andrews University – Scotland. 29 March to 2 April 2021. [Online] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jhLwhVTgZwo
Selected films
Running with Salmon
Running North
Whiteout
Running Walls
