Sehnsucht Urban Trail offers an open tour without directions. It is an invitation to the wanderer to engage with the poetry in between. Only a map of the trail provides orientation. Landscapes, view and information points are to be encountered on one's way through Neuehrenfeld. The hidden comes to the fore, makes one forget about any destinations and invites one to surrender to one's desire again and again—the asphalt of a noisy thoroughfare, rows of houses or shady places of silence. As a long-forgotten observation point for tourists, Cologne's television tower, emerges as a recurring place of longing.
Sehnsucht plays with the touristic view of the city. The con- sumption of sights often determines a form of tourism that is oriented towards global standards. What remains is a dis- torted memory of a city panorama that one can take home with conserved in a snow globe. But what else can be discov- ered beyond beaten tourist tracks if one loses sight of the actual destination?
Sehnsucht Urban Trail was initiated by Margrit Miebach and Mathieu Tremblin as part of CityLeaks Academy 2019. The project was supported by Sandra Stein (photographs), Gesche Wendebourg (post-production) and Felix Büchel (prod- uction of viewpoints).
