Subjective walks Izabela Łęska
1. 02.09.2014 21 429 steps 14,7 km 794 cal 5,12 h It rains. I feel invisible. I have put on clothes in a bizarre combination, which has its premiere today. I don’t know anyone here anyway. I’m walking. The sound of footsteps on the sand in a park is a nice change and it caresses my ears. My mom is calling. In the distance I can see a building with blue windows, which I know from yesterday. I find out that I can walk differently. Go nooks and crannies, walk barefoot, walk at night. Walk with someone. Someone stuck a clothing sticker on a worker on a road sign. A bee attacks me. I also take the stairs. Then I look at people as they go by. I carry a pit of a nectarine for a long time, because there is no dust bin. I forgot my sunglasses and I squint my eyes all of the time. A beautiful square, red leaves, autumn. I am looking for the perfect leaf. You have to be careful, sometimes the surface is slippery because of the rain. Legs pain and tourists nightmare. I find postcards with pieces of the Berlin Wall.
2. 03.09.2014 9 865 steps 7,8 km 421 cal 2,46 h I left later today. The walls of buildings are heated by the sun and when I stand next to them, they send me their thermal energy. Planes in the sky with a ghost of the moon. On the van there is a logo of a chimney sweep. It’s the first time that I see a logo of a chimney sweep. I don’t know if I have to grab the button for the good luck? Will it work? I walk along the streets that are named after the cities in Belgium - AntwerpenStrasse, BrusselStrasse. That’s interesting. Large space packed into a small box. Something like playing in the house when you were a child. I am surrounded by all the languages of the world. I like the atmosphere in the neighborhood hair salons. I draw and I bite my nails because of the stress.
3. 04.09.2014 21 352 steps 17,2 km 738 cal 3,47 h The acorns are falling from the trees onto my head. Pasewalker Strasse. A passive walker. Empty shops, abandoned bars are like space that laughs at people. Ha ha ha, I have thrown you away from here! I remember the names of some streets, I pass the others without being able to remember them. When I encounter a familiar place, I turn quickly in the opposite direction in order to learn something new. I find my way to the beach volleyball pitch. I am surprised that the gate is opened. I enter through one gate, I exit through the other. Some couple walks barefoot on the sand, they have arranged a holiday imitation for themselves. I learn some of the German words. Fleich. Meat. I think it’s wonderful - to relocate.
4. 05.09.2014 23 173 steps 17,5 km 935 cal 4,50 h Heavy traffic, a lot of exhaust and lots of sun. All people seem to leave their bikes very freely in the streets and I am always worried about mine. It works like a filter on your eyes. There’s something you don’t see, and then suddenly you start seeing it. I can choose to what I will pay my attention now and see just that. For example building bricks. People’s shoes, their noses. I pass a lady who has her hands folded as if in a prayer. I follow her for a while. She begins to clap and again returns to the same arrangement of her hands. A bell rings at school. It feel so good not to be obligated to respond to it. Some guy is reciting something in German and says Good morning to me, an ambulance passes. On the sidewalks there are small gardens sometimes - with sunflowers, tomatoes, pumpkins. I collect the first chestnuts this year from the street, some of them are drift by bikes, some by trams, I collect the ones that are left. A lot of beautiful people pass me. An ambulance again. I read the names of all the streets on my way.
5. 07.09.2014 8 815 steps 2,4 km 467 cal 2,30 h Flohmarkt in Mauerpark. I let the crowd carry me. A whole galaxy of colors and scents. Spectacular! I feel very happy. I think that to fall in love with someone in a big city is a real challenge. I listen to the karaoke.
6. 08.09.2014 9 771 steps 12,2 km 792 cal 3,18 h My friend came up once with the title for his first forthcoming book - Pockets full of chestnuts. I have a whole backpack of chestnuts. Across the city there are many trolleys from supermarkets. You could go with one of them through the city just like in the store and put in it what you find on your way. The river and the swans, one of them heavily flips its wings and sort of jumps on the surface of the water. A street of the Grimm Brothers. On the street clock it’s 10:43. I am waiting until it changes to 44. In front of me there’s a big roundabout, I pass four crosswalks in a row. Suddenly I recognize the square where I was five years ago. I suppose I have a good memory for places. I’m trying to make an old mechanism on the street work. It does work! The water falls and I wash my hands. A lady who is wearing the same shoes as mine is passing me. I’m fascinated by bicycles that were abandoned in the city, some have broken wheels, stolen frames, sometimes only the lock is left. My dad told me yesterday about the concept of the random walk. Apparently it is possible to mathematically solve the probability with which one goes through the city, and that each of us would do pretty much the same.
7. 09.09.2014 16 300 steps 11,9 km 763 cal 3,37 h I reach Eisenman’s monument. The power of simplicity, tingling in the back of my head. I’m here in a labyrinth and I walk only in straight lines. I absolutely don’t believe that everyone could go through here in a similar way! I eat a crêpe with sugar, for the same one but few hundred meters closer to the city center I would pay a lot more. I like to observe how these prices in the city change. On a passage one of traffic lights elements is hanging so that it’s impossible to see whether it’s green already. I wander between big, tall buildings. It’s a bit chilly today. Streets with female names - Charlotte, Hannah. I imagine how they might look like. I watch wedding dresses, I trample autumn leaves and listen to the rustling. In a park someone is madly swinging on a swing. I find a whole town of allotments, it’s another labyrinth. On the path I have a small meeting with a squirrel.
8. 10.09.2014 4 432 steps 9,1 km 546 cal 2,18 h Restaurant Papageno on the Wagner Street. That’s confusing. It’s lovely here, but probably it looks even better in the sun. I watch colorful stained glass windows in a church. Then I eat chocolate ice cream in the rain.
9. 11.09.2014 8 137 steps 6,9 km 387 cal 1,53 h With G. in an art gallery, we climb ladders. It is a pity that this height difference will not be registered.
10. 13.09.2014 4 460 steps 3,4 km 167 cal 1,03 h The clock on the Town Hall strickes quarter to four. In a tiny park there’s a photo session of a few wedding couples. On the sidewalk an empty cardboard box, a lime, a cap. A street still life. A dog on the street whines strangely when I pass by, it entertains his owner. I’m going to where the sounds of loud quarrel comes from. Letters and newspapers protrude from the mailboxes. I am waiting under chestnut trees until something falls out of them. Someone calls out name of my mother.
11. 15.09.2014 4 943 steps 10,2 km 594 cal 3,13 h Water seems to pour from a fountain in the shape of the letter M, just like McDonald’s logo. Today I go with T., who is looking for a watch in the shops. Strange pods hang from the trees, others are wearing serial numbers. We’re spinning in circles on the carousel, where you have to pedal to give it speed. We watch the wall. Then, near the bus stop we see a small car crash.
12. 18.09.2014 6 735 steps 4,3 km 206 cal 1,39 h Giraffe build from the Lego blocks. I wonder how many of those people on the streets I have already passed. Would I link them in different hairstyles and clothes? G. told me about pink and blue pipes that run through the city, we laugh that they send beer through them. LinkstraĂ&#x;e. At the mall I am watching people in close-ups through binoculars. It’s a rich district, T. is taking panoramic images over and over. A building with pieces of sky on the front.
13. 20.09.2014 5 717 steps 4,4 km 283 cal 1,15 h It is somehow very nice in here. A police booth. We land on an evening dance tango party. I walk under a huge willow tree. With T. we observe how the homeless are stealing a sack of potatoes exposed before the store. Streets begins to be wreathed by dusk. Lots of shops with beautiful displays, but I think that the new untouched things seem to be somehow disgusting.
14. 21.09.2014 0 steps 0,08 km 92 cal 1,03 h Hamish Fulton’s public action. Art is also such a labyrinth. I walk today with a large group of people. I am introduced to the rules and I am waiting for the gong. We move very slowly, so slowly that my pedometer does not record any step! Our legs barely rise from the ground. In the beginning the rate is uneven, I make my steps carefully so as not to waste even a little bit of space. Feet parallel, symmetric, foot by foot. After some time, this kind of rate seems to be completely natural. Each of us is a piece of puzzle and must maintain a balance, watch the person in front of you and behind you. At some point, we meet with the second line of people. A tremor when I pass every other person. It’s a metaphor, like in life, some people are walking in focus, others recklessly, danceable, rakish. We almost run into each other, it is tight, but we never stand still. I move the weight from one side to the other. No one has the courage to raise their voices, in the air you can feel something sublime. It looks like we are all swaying like penguins. I easily recognize performers who are supposed to maintain a certain speed of the walk, they go differently than everyone else. A work of art consisting of concentration of the other people, we give it to such a thing. The body begins to feel fatigue.
15. 22.09.2014 4071 steps 6,4 km 377 cal 1,44 h The sun shimmers through the trees. The more I walk, the more the different parts of the city arrange together as one in my head. As if movements of the tectonic plates followed and another patches of the city formed one composition. I take pictures of a large greenhouse. I save again few chestnuts from oblivion. Someone follows me for a minute and coughs loudly. Some guy skateboards, carries two strips and eats jelly beans. It seems that he is very pleased with the image he created. A little girl with a tennis ball. In the park I find a hammock, it feels that it’s the end of summer. A leaf sticks to my shoe.
16. 23.09.2014 4079 steps 2,7 km 166 cal 0,47 h What I think of, appears in front of my eyes. It’s not the first and not the last time. I haven’t been yet as far as today. Calm and quiet. Cars that T. would have liked. I enter into a district that looks like from a fairy tale. An alley of garages and a felled tree. My hands are freezing. Above my head large airplanes - a sign that the airport is close. Mobius allotments. I imagine how will I bend a wire drawing the present road. What would it be in the present scale? A huge golden pipe that rushes after me? I look into people’s windows and I catch furnishings of their interiors. I remain in a state of an extreme concentration. I find 2 cents. I follow pink spray traces. In the shoots of hops an abandoned TV set.
17. 25.09.2014 6009 steps 7,2 km 328 cal 1,56 h Sudden bouts of rain. I watch as they take the sludge out of the river. I breathe in the smell of freshly cut grass.
18. 26.09.2014 5632 steps 5,4 km 277 cal 1,39 h I am today in a district where my mother spent a month. A twin story in another time. I watch reddish apples on the trees. Strasse 42. Someone probably ran out of ideas for street names. I find that some of the streets in the city are duplicated. Pasewalker Strasse already was already there.