Critical Run

The point of a critical run is to activate the awareness muscle (a metaphorical muscle embedded within Geoffroy's central art philosophy);[8] through debating and running, the participants are asked to consider their positions on critical topics and defend or expand their perspectives,[9] the physical activity component is an expression of a metaphor: "either we run to save the world, as long as it's not too late, or we run to save ourselves by escaping, because it's too late."[10] The running metaphorically showing the haste needed to deal with these topics,[11] while also eliminating barriers the participants might otherwise build between themselves and the debate,[12] often increasing the honesty with which they express their opinions.[13]

Thierry Geoffroy in a critical run in New York City

Critical run has been activated in Beijing, New York City,[14] Cairo, London, Istanbul, Athens, Kassel, Sao Paolo, Hanoi, Istanbul, Paris, Copenhagen, Moskow, Napoli,[15] Sydney, Wroclaw,[16] Bruxelles, Rotterdam,[17] Siberia, Karlsruhe, Barcelona, Aalborg, Venice, Virginia, Stockholm, Aarhus, Rio de Janeiro, Budapest, Washington,[18] Lyon, Havana, Prague, Caracas, Trondheim, Berlin, Toronto, Hannover, The Hague, Newtown, Cartagena, Tallinn, Herning, Roskilde and more,[19] for over a decade. The Critical Run format has been activated on invitation from institutions such as Moderna Museet Stockholm, Moma PS1,[20][21] Witte de With Rotterdam, ZKM Karlsruhe, the Liverpool Biennale,[22] Sprengel Museum Hannover, Museum Villa Stuck[23] in Munich and the Venice Biennale[24] amongst others.[25] The critical run in Munich was conducted between the museum director Michael Buhrs and Geoffroy via instagram live due to travel restrictions and quarantine measures during the Covid-19 pandemic outbreak in 2020.[26]

The format has also spontaneously been activated and can be activated without the artist present, through an agreement with the artist, ensuring the run is in keeping with the art format rules. There have been debates on over 100 topics worldwide.[27] Participants are extremely diverse and have been from varied backgrounds and have included Swedish art critics, German police, American climate activists, Olympians, Chinese Gallerists, Brazilian students and many others.

In the 2020 exhibition “The Awareness Muscle Training Center” at Museum Villa Stuck in Munich, 40 critical runs[28][29] from over 30 different countries[30] were shown in a specially designed circular room, called “The Energy Room”,[31] (similar to the Emergency Room formats layout).

While some of the critical runs had been showcased as part of exhibitions or projects of Geoffroy’s in several museums, this was the first presentation as an installation.

The films are video art pieces, they have been specifically edited and cut to highlight moments that particularly stand out during the debates. [32]

The Energy Room was designed as an installation piece in itself, with the purpose of bringing energy to the museumgoers, with screens of different sizes all playing at once so that visitors had the opportunity to easily see many debates at the same time.[33] The videos were all captioned with brightly coloured subtitles[34] and no sound to enable a more focused perspective on the individual video’s contents.