Annettes Vermächtnis / Annette’s Legacy

Susanne Klinke and Ernst Köster’s installation is best experienced by bike, as it can be found directly on the Ruhrtal-Radweg / Ruhr Valley bike path between Freienohl and Bestwig. Quotes from Annette von Droste-Hülshoff’s works are written in fine cursive script along that section of the path in white paint, much like normal road markings.
The letters and words are easy to read because of their size, but it’s difficult to grasp the text in its entirety, since it’s stretched over such a long distance. It becomes another traveler on the road – though you may not give it much attention, you catch words or sentence fragments as you would when listening in on a stranger’s conversation. In this way, the encounter with the Westphalian poet remains unspectacular and fragmented, but may arouse more curiosity than many of the lessons taught at school.
As a young woman, Annette von Droste-Hülshoff toured the section of the valley between Ruhrquelle and Arnsberg. Annete’s Legacy features quotes from the prose texts she wrote in 1824 about that carriage journey. In this way, her words have been returned to their point of origin nearly 200 years later, illustrating the similarities in how we perceive nature, as well as the historical changes. They are translated as follows:
“…the mountain has cast off its jagged wreath and stretched out under a fluttering green blanket…”
“…it is the highest triumph of the truly mediocre…,
…the laurel crown of the fundamentally insignificant”
“…everything just as elsewhere – dusty roads with carts and horse-drawn carriages…”

Additional information: http://aufruhr.arnsberg.de/aufruhr/dauerbrenner/annettes_vermaechtnis.php