
"Usually, we would walk there in the mountains between Saxony and Bohemia. We imagined that we were traversing the Pyrenees between France and Spain, or even the Himalayas between Tibet and India. There we had towns and villages, mountains and valleys, fields and meadows, rivers and streams, sunshine and rain, in short, everything our hearts desired. We could not ask for more, nor find it in any other region."
Karl May, 1897
Try Walking in May Shoes
International art project inspired by the imagination of Karl May
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Imagine if Karl May, the creator of Winnetou and Old Shatterhand, had been born in modern British Columbia instead of in Ernstthal, Germany. How would the stories and news from the Ore Mountains on the Czech-German border inspire him?
How would he weave the communist past of both countries, post-war heroes or current events into his works? Join us on a playful journey full of imagination and the creation of new heroes and stories. Along the way, explore the space between cultural appropriation and admiration and other challenges of the contemporary world.
In short, try walking in May shoes.