memories

Empty pockets

Sunday January 22. She was standing outside, waiting for me to open the hatch. Officially I wouldn’t start sewing until Tuesday but she couldn’t wait. “Could you sew a memory in the pocket of my winter coat today?” I answered no and explained I had to prepare a lot. I told her that if she could come back on Tuesday I’d be happy to do it. “If I bring it in the morning on Tuesday, could you have it ready in the afternoon? I’m visiting Weimar and I don’t have many cloths with me. I’m staying around the corner and I could give you my winter coat and run home quickly but I would need it again later on in the day.” I told her I’d love to do it if she could do without her coat for two hours.

The next day she was back. “I was just passing and I was hoping you could do it today. I’ll be back in an hour. Would that work for you?” Although I didn’t mind getting started a day earlier, an hour would be too short to sew a memory in a pocket. We talked for another ten minutes about my project. When she left, she promised me she would be there early the next day.

Tuesday January 24. I made sure I was on time. 11.00 I opened the hatch. I saw her walking at the other side of the street. She crossed and gave me a big smile. “I have a great idea,” she said. “I’ve been walking around in Weimar the last couple of days and I thought about a lot of things. I will bring some nice memories home from my stay here. So I thought it would be a great idea if you would sew my own memory in my own pocket.” I hesitated, not wanting to disappoint her and being somewhat confused. She was my first customer. But there was no way around it. I said: “That’s not how it works. That’s not what I do. Like I explained before, I ask you to give me a memory and in return I sew somebody elses memory in your pocket.” She looked surprised and said: “But isn’t it a great idea? And wouldn’t it be wonderful if I could return home with my own memory in my pocket?” I said: “Yes, that would be great, but you already have your own memory. Wouldn’t it even be nicer if you would share it with somebody elses and return home with a brand new one in your pocket, one with a completely different history?” She got a bit angry and told me I wasn’t very flexible and I spoiled her great idea. I explained again that the most important part of this project was the exchange. She said “Well, than I’m very sorry,” she turned the back of her dark blue winter coat at me and walked the same way she had walked the other days.

The next day I saw her again. She passed the kiosk and didn’t look at me. Same in the evening when she returned home. And same the next day. I tried to smile at her but she didn’t want to see me. It made me sad that the only thing I had given her was a bad memory, and I didn’t even sew it in her pocket. But there was nothing else I could have done. Still she did give me this memory. Which I’m very happy to share with you.

In business

kiosk.6

This is the place where next week I'll be sewing memories into peoples' pockets. It is the last DDR kiosk in Weimar and it is run by Marke.6. More info about my project can be found here or further down this weblog.

At the moment the kiosk is occupied by something in its wintersleep. This weekend the animal will be woken up and stored somewhere else so I can start getting the place ready for my project.

I already asked people who can't come by in Weimar to send me memories. I'm looking forward to put them into other peoples' pockets. If there's a memory you want to share, please send it to me! (max. 8 words or 35 letters) I'll send you a photo of the pocket with the embroidered memory in return.

Pickpockets

I'm thinking about pockets a lot these days. If you read my blogs you know why. Something else related to pockets: I am invited to take part in Engage 2012 in March in Bucharest, a project about dialogue. On the one hand it will be a dialogue between me and the city of Bucharest, on the other hand it will be a dialogue between me and the other participants. I have never been to Bucharest and I know very little about it. One of the first things I read about Bucharest when I started researching the city is that there are a lot of pickpockets and you have to be very careful with your valuables. I immediately thought about carrying things with me with a valuable immaterial content but having no intrinsic value whatsoever. Wallets with small drawings or poems for example. Or a message, asking the pickpocket to send me a letter with his bank-details or an address I can send some money to in return for him contacting me.

Thank you, Allan Kaprow!

Today I'm 14.364 days old. I opened the frontdoor of my house and walked 14.364 steps.