The Idea
Diary



In summer 2002 I took an old wooden kitchen tray and made it into a simple hawker’s tray. There was room for six flipbooks on it. I hung a sign on it saying “Please visit my traveling exhibition”. I walked through Berlin and showed people my flipbook movies. Sometimes I changed the programme. I screwed an empty honey jar underneath the hawker’s tray so that visitors could pay a symbolic exit fee.
For nearly a year I showed people my flipbook movies in Berlin. Then I decided to become a journeyman. I wanted to find out how people all over the country would react to my flipbooks. And I wanted to make some new flipbooks. As I was afraid I would miss something if I travelled too quickly I decided to walk. In summer 2003 I walked from Berlin to Basel via Munich. Two years later I walked the same way back, from west to east. In summer 2006 I walked from Berlin to Cologne, in summer 2009 from Oldenburg to Wismar, and in summer 2011 from Wismar to Groß Dölln. In 2012 I walked to a number of places where I had met people on my earlier walks, and in summer 2014 I walked from Magdeburg to Wabern. On all of these walks I carried my hawker’s tray with me. Altogether I spent just under twelve months walking about 3,500 kilometres. On all of these walks my only source of money came from showing my flipbooks.

I intend to keep on walking.

My flipbook stage show is based on my long summer walks and the people I meet. I regularly present it in Germany and abroad.




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