Loneliness is unknown to public space. Even if we may move through the city led by our own footsteps and intentions only, we will encounter people everywhere, forming fleeting collectives, sharing their presence and aim. Moreover, we pass a multitude of time levels. While everyone seems to prepare for the future constantly, our present can never dispense with the past; every now is the result of infinite years. Every street is loaded with history, from every house thousands of stories have already been wrested, at every corner countless people have loved, dreamed, composed and died countless times: dramas, encounters, illuminations that are hardly to be distinguished from our very own lives. In order to combine the visible and invisible multiplicity of the city with one’s own movements artist collective LIGNA provided pedestrians with headphones: One’s immediate environment thus transforms into an intimate as well as historic stage. Apart from one’s own impressions our joint way is accompanied by narrations, by the city’s voices. One’s own senses mingle with those who once strolled or still stroll along streets and between houses, be they pilgrims, pickpockets, business people, protesters or poets. The everyday is the mysterious. And it is present at all times.

 

Ebertplatz/ Eigelsteintorburg, 50668 Köln

Edition:
Sharing Cities