Kasper König invited me to take part in Skulptur. Projekte in Münster 1997 after seeing Louisiana Walk. He was able to conceive of the walk as sculpture, which gave me an insight into my own work. I had never been to Germany before. On my various trips there, I did historical research and I just wandered around. Everything was thickly layered with the past, and imbued with ‘German-ness.’ I decided to work with an older male character because the town was populated with older men wandering around, sitting on benches, unemployed or retired. I kept thinking about their relationship to the war, or about family and friends that they could have lost in the war. So I created a character that was tracing his dead daughter’s footsteps through the town, standing where she would have stood, creating maps and writings of his own wanderings. This story was also inspired by a friend of mine who had just lost her son in a car crash. She tried to follow or reproduce his movements through the landscape by re-photographing many of the photographs he had taken. By looking through the camera at what he would have seen, she could try to recapture some of his memory.

sound of weird repetitive piano banging to left as if it comes from the building

Janet I think this is the Bishop’s house to the left. I’m sorry I can’t tell you the history of these buildings, or give you a real audio tour. I’m just a visitor here. piano gets louder throughout this dialogue. there’s no street noise

Janet It’s strange being here, in this country. Somehow I grew up being afraid of Germany, knowing it only from American war movies and spy novels. piano ends abruptly
[...]

Young Man Tell me again, I’ll try to understand..

Janet voice overlaps with man’s voice I remember locking my brother in the closet.

Young Man It’s not your fault. You just saw it.

Janet voice overlaps with man’s voice He was too young to get out. I heard his screams and I laughed.
[...]

Janet I’m at home again. I watch the videotape of me walking down the streets, beside the canal. I can only see in front of me, only what the camera shows. I can’t see him following me, counting my footsteps. I lie in bed watching him sleep. One arm above his head. His body twitching, trying to act out his dreams.

Young Man What time is it ? Why aren’t you sleeping

Janet How can you be really sure of anyone.

sound of real Münster comes up again, birds, city noise

Janet Let’s walk again. We have someone to meet ...

Janet Go behind the bench to the right across the grass. Towards the stone sculpture that looks like mountains... sound of choir singing to the right, sounds like it is coming from the church. walking sounds, construction sounds, still sound of choir singing

Janet I think this is a Jesuit church. Keep walking straight ahead, across the street. There’s a red car parked here.

Older Man From the tower to the palace. 985 steps.

Janet past the bicycles Last night I dreamt I was flying over Vienna. I remember a deep black sky and the wind rushing against my body. What does flying mean in a dream. sound of professor lecturing from windows at left

Janet I read a book, called Experiments with Time that says dreams are just as much from the future as from the past. I like that idea. go up the stairs. someone runs by you