Walter or You jerk you didn’t call me up at Layr

Display by Anna Hostek and Bartholomaeus Wächter.
Curated by Lou von der Heyde for curated by 2026: LOVE

–

Excerpt from “Walter or You jerk you didn’t call me up”

[…]

It was raining outside. Or it had been raining for some time and I hadn’t noticed. The city lay behind the glass, blurred, unreal. Walter stepped beside me.

WALTER: And?

I covered the microphone with my hand.

I: What do you mean, ‘and’?
WALTER: Is everything all right now?
I: No.

He nodded. For a moment we were all reflected in the window, Walter, you and I; not Jerk, though I could hear his voice. I put my hand to the glass. It was cold.

JERK: What are you doing?

I saw our reflections, the pictures, the dark city, or the other way round. In the glass everything lay on top of everything else.

I: I’m trying to find something out.
JERK: What?

I thought of Althoff’s picture. Of the many stories, the explanations. You’ll never understand it. And: How lovely it would be if you could.

I: Whether one can love someone without understanding them.

There was a pause. I looked at you. You looked back. Walter raised his eyebrows.

JERK: And?
I: Don’t know.