[EN] “Werner Lenz”

“The short biographical novel Lenzby the German writer Georg Büchner, published posthumously in 1839, starts with a description of how in January 1778 the mentally ill poet Jacob Lenz walks across les Vosges to the village of Waldbach, where the philanthropical priest Johan Friedrich Oberlin was based. Waldbach is situated in the Steintal, which had been a place of asylum for prosecuted Protestants since the end of the sixteenth century.

In his travel journal Vom Gehen im Eis, the German film director Werner Herzog describes a walk from Munich to Paris in December 1974. His friend and film critic Lotte Eisner was diagnosed with cancer and Herzog believes that if he makes it to Paris on foot, sleeping along the way in empty holiday houses, she will make it. On his way he crosses les Vosges along the same route as Lenz did two hundred years earlier, passing through the village of Waldersbach (formerly called Waldbach), apparently unaware of the history of Oberlin and Lenz.

As if that is not enough of a coincidence, both text fragments of five and eight pages respectively, describing a walk along the same route at the same time of the year, have more things in common… I take them as a starting point for an artistic exploration. I will walk the same route again and invite people to walk, reflect and create with me.”

The weekend of 8 and 9 December, Bruno De Wachter walks the route in Les Voges from Barr to Fouday with Various Artists, Caroline Daish, Justine Maxelon, and Miriam Rohde.

On Thursday 20 December, at 20:00, Bruno will present the walk and his artistic exploration at dinA (Nieuwbrug 3 Rue du Pont Neuf, 1000 Brussels).

[NL] Bruno De Wachter

Naar de aanleiding van de wandeling Werner Lenz bracht Bruno De Wachter zijn reflecties van de wandeling die hij zelf deed en degene die hij organiseerde voor collega kunstenaars.