\tSusanne Klinke and Ernst K\u00f6ster’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-H\u00fclshoff’s works are written in fine cursive script along that section of the path in white paint, much like normal road markings.
\nThe letters and words are easy to read because of their size, but it\u2019s difficult to grasp the text in its entirety, since it\u2019s stretched over such a long distance. It becomes another traveler on the road \u2013 though you may not give it much attention, you catch words or sentence fragments as you would when listening in on a stranger\u2019s 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.
\n \tAs a young woman, Annette von Droste-H\u00fclshoff toured the section of the valley between Ruhrquelle and Arnsberg. Annete\u2019s 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:
\n \t“…the mountain has cast off its jagged wreath and stretched out under a fluttering green blanket…”
\n \t“…it is the highest triumph of the truly mediocre…,
\n \t…the laurel crown of the fundamentally insignificant”
\n \t“…everything just as elsewhere \u2013 dusty roads with carts and horse-drawn carriages…”<\/p>\n