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Gisela Weimann |
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Erinnerungen / Memories under
My Shadow Remains
In Adalbert
von Chamisso’s romantic novel the main character Peter
Schlemihl sells his shadow to the devil for a wonderful
lucky bag that was spitting out ducats, however, he loses
his identity in the deal and changes into a disturbing,
shadowless stranger who must shun the light and only dares
to move among men in moonless nights. When the Devil finally
demands his soul of him in return for the material happiness,
he throws away the lucky bag and exchanges his last
possessions for a pair of walking shoes. These turn out to
be seven-miles boots that drive him restlessly from one
place to the other in search for the recovery of his shadow.
I have renounced the possession of a ducat spitting lucky
bag and have kept my shadow. Inner homelessness, however,
and finding my place in the world are also determining
factors in my life that began in a period of German history
characterized by destruction, displacement and loss of
identity. My seven-miles boots are aircraft and rapid bus
and rail links. I travel with my shadow, capture it with
light in my camera, keep its image on the hard drive of my
computer and connect it indelibly with the places I have
visited and the people with whom I have shared my life. My
shadow remains as evidence of my having been (there) and as
a projection of my inner self.
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