Schöne grüsse, hi from John

Schöne grüsse aus eine kleinstadt in Deutschland!

Hello from a tiny village in central Germany! It is so strange to come back to the space that I called home for four months. Living here was a wonderful and challenging experience, and the emotions attached to those adjectives resurface upon returning.

I boarded my night train on thursday night with two travling companions, both of whom are dead. I brought with me the principe indiano from the end of the Cascine, as well as the Portugese Prince from above Florence in San Miniato. I started my work in Florence by investigating a burial place for foreigners, and decided to continue.... examining other spaces constructed to commemorate the lives of foreigners who had happened to die in Florence. Strikingly, the Indian prince, or Maharaja, was only 21.... and he was also traveling to complete his education...

So, I still don't know what my projects is exactly, though a large part of it comes down to something that I will be doing this very afternoon. ....quite exhilerating...

I will be doing something that responds to the space in which I currently find myself - this village that I called home for four months.... another place where I was a foreigner, but a place where I temporarily had a very real sense of connection, of actually living here...

So, I have brought with me elements of, or my responses to, spaces designed to commemorate the presence of foreigners in Florence.....

and the question then becomes.... how am I going to commemorate my own presence here in this village....a foreigner, a former resident, returned, somewhere between the two?