UdK/HAU Berlin, 2008

Video documentation by Björn Speidel

Reststops are the only exeption from the stopping restriction on the Autobahn. Exemplary spaces of our mobile society, they are artificial worlds cut out of the landscape, standardized public areas for the satisfaction of everyday, existential needs. On reststops we lose time. We hit the brakes, regenerate bodies and machines, and accelerate back into the flow. In the literary diary “Los Autonautas de la Cosmopista” (1984), Julio Corázar and his wife Carol Dunlop document their extraordinary, time-less journey, not from Paris to Marseille, but from reststop to reststop in between.

Fueled by motives of the argentinian master storyteller whose best known short story “Las Babas del Diablo” served as inspiration for Michelangelo Antonionis Film “Blow-Up”, a bus tour starts off from Berlin in pursuit of reality – only to leave it behind somewhere along the way.

“Southern Autobahn. A Music Theater Journey to Berlin’s Periphery – inspired by Julio Cortázer” was created 2007/2008 at Berlin Universtiy of Art under the direction of Daniel Ott.

Dramatic composition by Jutta Wangemann
Conceptual work and media by Sebastian and Judith Klapper
Music performance by Josa
More info and credits here