Pictures learn to walk by being carried around

Volker Gerling walked 5500 kilometers through Germany, Switzerland and Austria. He met an old man who wanted to save the world and almost starved to death in the process, a journeyman carpenter who, like him, met his new girlfriend shortly before setting off, and a young man who, like Gerling, walked to Austria, albeit for completely different reasons. Gerling tells of the big, small, serious and bizarre chance meetings and brings his protagonists to life for a moment on stage. So alive that you sometimes think you've known them for years. He portrays the people he meets on his travels in the form of photographic flipbooks. On stage, he scrolls through the photos under a video camera, projects the images onto the screen and tells the stories of the people he was allowed to photograph. Gerling's magical portrait studies thus create a light-footed yet profound reflection on the fleeting nature of the moment and the significance of human encounters. The play BILDER LERNEN LAUFEN, INDEM MAN SIE HERUMTRÄGT was invited to theater festivals in 30 countries on four continents and received the prestigious Total Theatre Award at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. In addition to Gerling's latest flip-books, the highlights of his earlier wanderings can be seen.