Polish artist to set off from Muff on unique Brexit border project

Local people from Derry and Donegal have been urged to come out and support Aleks Stanek at border points on Saturday, July 22.

The Fine Art graduate is originally from Gdansk but who has been living in the north for 12 years,

Aleks will set off from the old Customs Post at Muff at 11am on Saturday, and plans to run more than 200 miles over seven days.

A group of runners from Derry and Donegal will accompany her on the first leg as far as Carrigans, and then other groups will continue along with her for the other parts of the journey.

The runners, after departing from Muff on Saturday morning, will head to Coshquin, then Bridgend, on to Killea and then Carrigans.

She will then continue to on through St Johnston to Lifford and finish in Strabane for the night.

The local Breaking Down Brexit group are inviting runners from throughout the city and wider area to support Aleks during her first stage of the border run and are asking people to gather at the border crossing points at Bridgend at 12pm and Killea at 1pm to show support and solidarity with the artist .

Speaking ahead of the mammoth undertaking, Aleks, who is also just about to start a Master’s Degree in Sculpture at the Royal College of Art, London, said:

“During the project, I will run over 200 miles, repetitively exiting and entering Northern Ireland, burying the rubble of Belfast brick and ash tree seeds at unmarked intersections to create invisible monuments.”

She continued “The broken bricks symbolise uncertainty faced by Northern Irish industries following last year’s referendum result.

“ The permanence of borders, whether physical or imaginary, will be reflected by the budding growth of ash tree seeds. “

Aleks said the initiative was inspired by another epic quest conducted in the past.

“The project borrows its name from a work of the same title by artist Bas Jan Ader, who became lost at sea while attempting to single-handedly sail around the world in a search for the undefined miraculous,” she said.

Aleks said that her own project titled ‘In Search of the Miraculous’ – or simply the Search – was planned as a long durational border run taking place that she hoped to complete on July 28.

Breaking Down Brexit have previously staged, and taken part in, rallies and protest amid uncertainty over the future for people living in the border area following the narrow ‘Leave’ vote in the overall UK Referendum on EU membership, particularly in light of people in the north and in Scotland voting to remain within the EU.

For further information on the forthcoming event along the border, or to participate in the run, contact Dermot O’Hara on mobile number 07595893757 or via e-mail at [email protected]