Hey!

It’s just now that I discovered your post from January 12th in the gray mass of the blog. Since I am not daily checking it and you haven’t posted it in our account. Sorry!

So, there is more to say! As you probably saw, I posted extremely grey pictures of Zurich, I tried to shoot others, but no deers showed up. The coldness which is probably indeed not only weatherwise, but also socially implied, especially in wintertime. During the summer people are outside, at the lake etc. The sun is melting the coldness. It’s a different city. Now in winter you have to go to dubious, dim bars, you first let alcohol to warm your soul and loose your tongue for finally finding soulmates in such a cave. Melancholy.

Melancholy, loneliness are doubled-etched feelings. If melancholy and unfulfilled yearning would not exist, beauty and desire would be just half as powerful.

One says the russian soul is melancolic, maybe also the finnish (Nelli, what would you think?). Swiss? I would say hidden, because they work so much, there is no space for celebrating melancholy, you live it at home, alone with yourself. The Chilean soul? In Argentina there is Tango, a dance that celebrates  melancholy (I like this dance very much and also do it myself). A dance that fits completely well to the topic of migration and identity.

In the context of melancholy I find it interesting that depression is becoming the number one illness in western society. At that point melancholy has lost its beautyful edge and despair is predominant. I wonder whether this accumulation is also because of feeling homeless. By migrating in any kind of way (geographically, mentally) you leave a home. Or as Stuart Hall says: “Migration is a one way trip. There is no home to go back to.” The noble goal is to find a home in this open space of travelling. Hard job!

But I drift apart! Anyway now I have to go for lunch, but I will be back!

Attached a picture of the mountain called “myth” in Switzerland, hey it’s sunny!

Tot ziens – Natalie