Three streets of Berlin as three pretexts to wander in an imaginary world. Kollwitzstrasse and a child, a real child ? A ghost child ? Hungry in a supermarket. It is difficult to understand in what layer of reality we are. In what time plane. Maybe there is no difference, maybe we can navigate through time and space through holes in the borders. Majakovskiring and a conversation with a painting of Majakovsky in a restaurant that doesn’t exist. The concept of wanting to meet again people we already know, just to relive that unique moment, the one just before, the one just after the encounter, keeping alive the magic of relationships. Again, the idea of thin borders between now and the past. Can a path lead you astray ? Puschkinallee and war. The power of stone that becomes alive, the power of memory through stone, so as not to forget. A weird reading, a little destabilising but beautiful words.
“The city is full of people you might have met, who might have become close friends. Maybe that’s why, even when I’m with an old friend, someone I feel close to, I can’t help suspecting that there are plenty of other people around I would have enjoyed being with just as much, if only I’d had the chance to meet them. That’s why I make a point of referring to the person I’ve been with-sharing bed and bread-for twenty years as “her,” and why I make arrangements for us to have one more chance of meeting in the labyrinth of the city, hoping to discover her again for the very first time. I want to meet her in a coffee shop, where we’ll stir the sugar in our coffee with rapid movements, as if we only have time for one cup, savoring this time together, knowing we may never meet again, looking into each other’s faces again and again as we sip our coffee. And even if we always eat at home, I want to dress up and buy her a bouquet as if she’d invited me over.”
Original Title : The three stories were selected from a volume published initially as 百年の散歩 / Hyakunen-no-sanpo
Translated from Japanese