Sidewalks, illustration by Elona, June 2015 (CC NC-ND-4.0 2025)
Sidewalks
Sidewalks started in September 2014, when we decided to leave our home in Brighton, United Kingdom, get to know the world together, and slowly transform our personal and professional lives. Half a year later, we packed our home into four backpacks, took (many) trains, ferries, and buses, and made it all the way to Shanghai, China… to Hong Kong then, to Japan in between, to South East Asia later…
The page Sidewalks itself started out in 2015 as part travel blog, part provocation, part space for creating ideas. Sidewalks is not just a travel blog, though it is inspired by our travels. It is a chance to be more conscious of the life we are living, and in doing so slowly cultivating our own subjective understanding of relationships between people, places, time, emotions, things, and non-things.
It is also a vision for a project, sharing stories and exploring how we can connect places and people. We envision doing this through collaboration and different modes of expression and representation. Stories allow us to do this, bring together written and audio-visual content, and be purposefully evocative.
Why sidewalks
The sound of our steps. 3am, a woman sifts through a communal bin for plastic and cardboard. Siesta, under a tree and deafened by the sound of cicadas, a key-cutter sleeps on a scooter in perfect equilibrium, head on the saddle and legs stretched over the handlebars. Briefcases and heels flow in and out of a subway entrance. Two friends meet at a corner then continue to their destinations. A drunk sound asleep on a patch of grass. There is no sidewalk. Pavement, curbs, holes, bricks, tiles, stones, weeds, dust, asphalt, meetings, steps, fear, bus stops, lights, signs, chairs, stalls, windows… Veredas, Trottoirs… Sidewalks. If anything, Sidewalks is a productive provocation, and an interesting starting point for exploring ideas that are central to our project, and that we continue to explore. Below are some of our starting points.
We haven’t published on Sidewalks for a longtime, and the original website is now taken down to save energy/water, and free-up data servers. However, we might, from time to time publish some stories that have yet to be shared from our past and ongoing travels. Feel free to explore, comment or get in touch. This is above all a space for reflecting and sharing stories from our experiences.
We are Juan and Elona, companions in life for the last ten years. Together we have lived, studied and worked in six different countries across three continents. Experienced in intercultural communication, native speakers in English, Spanish, and French, we are learning Chinese, Arabic and British Sign Language.
Juan is a writer and researcher. He has a background in history and political sciences and is passionate about languages and believes it is never too late to start learning. He is interested in anecdotes of his family’s past to understand his present and is currently writing two books. A nostalgic at heart, he is interested in exploring our relationship to time, space and the importance of constantly cultivating our imagination. Juan enjoys reading just about any kind of books, practices Aikido and likes playing Chess, though he is not very good at either of them. He enjoys drinking maté and is constantly looking for an excuse to play football.
Elona is a musician, researcher and catalyst for reflexion and change. She has an interdisciplinary background in human sciences and over six years’ experience working in academic research and consultancy in sustainability in practice and values-based evaluation. A soul without flags, Elona’s passion and strength revolves around the connection of food, people and place. An undeclared photographer, Elona loves cooking and is extremely good at it. She likes aerial circus (that’s hanging from a trapeze) and has recently started learning medical Qi Gong. Find out more about Elona and her work her personal website: https://elonahoover.com
We are always open to developing collaborations, and would be happy to hear from you. For more information please visit our professional profiles. More information to come soon. Don’t hesitate to get in touch, email us at:
elona.juan [at] ecomail.co
Si querés una copia de los dibujos, escribime a juanchila@ecomail.pro
Si tu veux une copie des dessins, écris moi à juanchila@ecomail.pro
If you'd like a copy of the drawings, write to me at juanchila@ecomail.pro
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