»A Migrant’s Journey (after: Die Winterreise)«
Platform U5 Cottbusser Platz, September 2016 until 8 October 2017
I came here a stranger
Why should they care about my grief?
Ah tears, my tears
Here you’ll find peace!
You know about my longing
Do you now recognize your image?
You town of inconstancy!
Our joys, our sorrows
So wild and so bold
I dreamed of many coloured flowers
Oh, that the world should be so light!
Why do you leap so high, My heart?
Wandering on the road
I am finished with all my dreams
How the storm has torn asunder
The heavens’ grey cover!
Oh, merciless inn
You turn me away?
A Migrant’s Journey is an adaption of the cycle of poems »Die Winterreise«, written by Wilhelm Müller in 1823/24 and set to music by Franz Schubert in 1827/28. The poems tell of a lonely young man who leaves his village in search of peace – a peace he does not find. Elizabeth Wood has chosen certain lines which create a narrative and which might represent a migrant’s experience today in places like Hellersdorf, where there has been visible and tangible hostility. The text, layouted on a decorative background in a typeface suggesting traditional German, will be installed on the inside of the windows of the station staff room on the platform at Underground station Cottbusser Platz. The print is on transparent acrylic film allowing light to pass through from the inside of the staff room similar to light passing through stained glass.