"Standing off to one side. Seeing only the world in fragments, there won’t be any other one. Moments, crumbs, fleeting configurations—no sooner have they come into existence than they fall to pieces. Life? There’s no such thing; I see lines, planes and bodies, and their transformations in time. Time, meanwhile, seems a simple instrument for the measurement of tiny changes, a school ruler with a simplified scale—it’s just three points: was, is and will be."—Olga Tokarczuk, author and inspiration
Exhibition: Sixteen Fragments: Walking as an Artform
Sepa Sama; Walker
Sepa Sama is an artist and photographer with a Doctor of Arts, Doctoral School of the Eugeniusz Geppert Academy of Art and Design in Wrocław,. He focuses on walking as artistic research. He studied architecture at Sci-Arc and art and urban design at UCLA in Los Angeles.
Now his work integrates architecture, art, and the environment, utilizing a transdisciplinary approach.
He explores cultural and urban landscapes across Asia, the Americas, Europe, Africa, and Australia.
Portrait of an Artist
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Profile photo by Janno Bergmann, taken during the Copper Leg Art Residency, Estonia, March 2022.
"I got to walking from photography, mainly because of my long walks, sometimes up to 9 hours, basically, the whole day, and those were the richest days of my life spent time outside." -- Sepa Sama
Tell The Museum a little about your life.
It has been a journey through lands and disciplines. I was born in Tabriz, along the Silk Road. I wrote my first book in Yazd, in the desert—a kind of second birth. I have walked through architecture, poetry, exile, and academia. I have published 20 books, and each is woven with movement and memory.
Who is your inspiration?
Omar Khayyam—poet, astronomer—guides my work. As an architect, I believe we must use both wings: analytical and poetic. Yet today, I see extreme inequalities between art and science, privilege and displacement.
What shapes your work?
Displacement and light. My journey is shaped by being displaced, learning across borders, and carrying pain not only mine, but inherited. Still, I ask: Is the world opening up or closing down? For whom? There is always light. And we will find it.
What words of wisdom do you have for us?
The wisdom of the body cannot be digitized. The closet, for me, is a story of destruction and rebirth. The gallery—ours—is a space of listening.
Why photography?
Photography is my way of witnessing. Of offering presence. It complements walking—together they form a double exposure of the world and the self.
Why walking?
Walking is my way of knowing, remembering, resisting, and giving form to ideas not yet born.
Sixteen Fragments
This is a story in sixteen fragments.
1. A fragment is a part broken off, detached, or incomplete.
2. Olga Tokarczuk says this of fragments:
"Standing off to one side. Seeing only the world in fragments, there won’t be any other one. Moments, crumbs, fleeting configurations – no sooner have they come into existence than they fall to pieces. Life? There’s no such thing; I see lines, planes and bodies, and their transformations in time."
3. So here, stand off to one side.
Consider these fragments of walks.
Fragments of what?
4. A stone?
5. No.
6. A formation.
7. Obviously.
8. Returning from somewhere.
9. At least one side is covered.
10. Is a snowflake a fragment of water?
11. Or a line? Or a form?
12. No matter.
13. What about a crane?
14. Man made fragments.
are less...
Life like, anyway, aren't they?
15. Not like the sunflower, whose face
never hides
16. Behind still lines.
We invite you to peruse the gallery.
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16 Questions
For a Walker
(for others; for places; and sometimes for myself.
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Why do you walk?
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What do you notice first when you walk in a new place?
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How does your body change when you slow down?
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What do your feet remember that your mind forgets?
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Have you ever walked without knowing why?
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What do you carry when you walk—seen or unseen?
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What sounds stay with you after a walk?
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Do you walk and listen at the same time?
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What does it mean to walk with someone else?
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Is walking a way to resist, or to surrender?
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What do you avoid while walking—and why?
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What part of a place do you only understand by walking it?
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When was the last time you got lost—and how did it feel?
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What kind of walking heals you?
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What question do you ask when you walk alone?
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If you had to walk forever, what would you leave behind?
INSPIRATION
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Learn about the Walking Lexicon.
Walking Lexicon is a poetic and research-based project unfolding as a hybrid book of thousands of entries—each reflecting on walking as a way of thinking, feeling, resisting, and being. Rooted in Sepa Sama's doctoral work and a bibliography of over 200 titles, the Lexicon weaves together photography, minimal writing, and conceptual reflection. This is his twentieth book, part of two decades of artistic and academic publishing.
Consider supporting the project: We are seeking support to develop it as a beautifully printed object, a digital edition, and a public installation.
A quiet, layered work—walking through words, metaphors, languages, landscapes, and shared thought.