TOVO

Wandering thinkers of Antiquity known as Peripatetics found that our best thoughts come to mind while wandering. The rhythm of walking frees the head, sensuous experiences of the great outdoors excite brain storms. Nietzsche's thoughts did not occur to him standing at a lectern either, but rather when he was on the move. He always took a notebook on his endless rambles in Switzerland's Upper Engadine. At night, he would map out his formulations. Illustrator, painter, graphic artist and filmmaker Thomas Steiner discovered his Sils Maria in a different mountain village – in northern Italy's Liguria. The district of Tovo Faraldi in Villa Faraldi became his place of contemplation. While a camera serves as his notebook, the footage is later thought out – or better yet – thought further using a frenetic drawing pen, multiple exposures and Werner Puntigam's powerfully raw aural landscape.

Stepping through a traced over shot of the archway to a stone chapel, we soon find ourselves repeatedly retreading a forest and meadow path marked with wayside crosses. The multiple black and white movement of this specific place takes hold. It gurgles, rattles and rolls on the ground, zones of focus dance, animated strokes in terracotta-yellow-brown-black and ochre tones take over, with a few splashes of color adding red notes. Can the ephemeral be caught? Explosive clusters, euphorias, ant hills. Thoughts resemble insects that swarm around us, ("flies in the brain"), Jackson Pollock, small flames or mental flashes, electrical discharges. We walk in the opposite direction to exit the chapel, over to an unmarked tree in the lush countryside.

In Barcelona, there is a TOVO Academy that has an intelligent soccer training program designed to provide players with great foresight and anticipatory understanding. Less academic and in only eight minutes, the wanderer in Tovo Faraldi also succeeds in reaching this destination. (Regina Schlagnitweit)

Translation: Eve Heller