Inspiration trip 1
I think this is one of those moments you save like an image in your mind. I was in Soltau, and before I went inside, I saw this. By the end of the day, before I went to bed, I realized that for my paintings I should make a better blog, reorganize all the documentation I've made since 2010, and build a better foundation for the years to come.
I was working on a painting called Bradley Cooper Movie. It continues the stream of consciousness that I have explored before and features a figure I created during this trip called Anton. I had a lot of thoughts while I was having my simple German meal on the Autobahn. I like the Autobahn. The sound of the cars racing by reminds me of being a child, standing nearby and listening to them. Sometimes I miss that time.
The babybear is crying because mama bear is vaping.
Staying in Soltau also reminded me of being in Austria as a child with my parents. The cozy breakfasts and lunches Dorothea made for me gave me a nostalgic and comforting feeling. It was one of those days when memories, places, and the work itself all seemed to come together.
I photograph a lot, and I save and screenshot countless images from the internet and with my Instagram scraper. I like using Instagram as a personal archive with a feed blocker, so it works more like Tumblr used to: a place to collect images without those endless video reels. Looking back at everything I've documented over the years made me realize that I should organize it more carefully not just for myself, but as part of the ongoing story of my work.
In Tangermünde, there was a great antiques shop. It had photo albums from the Second World War period. Sadly enough, they were €750 each.
Lately, I've been thinking about where my knowledge actually comes from.
Every day, algorithms shape the information we see, the ideas we're exposed to, and the stories that compete for our attention. Over time, it's easy to forget how much of our perspective is influenced not by what we intentionally seek out, but by what appears in a feed.
Algorithms don't optimize for understanding. They optimize for attention. Their job isn't to show us what's most important or most true. It's to show us what we're most likely to engage with. Over time, that distinction doesn't just shape what we see. It shapes what we overlook.
There's a word I keep coming back to: epistemic. It relates to how we know what we know, the source code of our beliefs. It asks a simple but uncomfortable question.
Where did this belief come from?
Did I arrive at it through curiosity and firsthand exploration? Or did it find me because an algorithm predicted I would engage with it?
The things we search for become part of who we are. The things that simply arrive, unquestioned, quietly shape who we become.
Lately, I've been trying to live with that question in mind.
It's one of the reasons I've started taking slow, inspirational trips through Germany. I'm heading to Berlin, but I'm not rushing there. Instead, I'm stopping in smaller cities along the way, wandering local streets, visiting independent cafés, talking to people, and paying attention to the quiet details that rarely make it into anyone's feed.
I'm not traveling to escape technology. I'm traveling to step outside the paths already chosen for me.
I want to experience places through my own curiosity instead of recommendations optimized for engagement. I want conversations that weren't designed to go viral. I want to discover places before they become content.
That means looking beyond mass tourism, beyond the mainstream art world, and beyond destinations that have been reproduced so many times online that they feel more familiar on a screen than they do in reality.
I'm searching for places that still have the freedom to surprise me. Places that haven't been reduced to a backdrop or a brand, but remain what they've always been: lived, imperfect, and quietly themselves.
The more I think about it, the more I wonder if the same is true for ideas.
Maybe they're meant to be encountered, not merely consumed.
So I'm trying to trace things back. To ask where my beliefs came from. To seek original sources instead of summaries. To value curiosity over convenience, depth over speed, and discovery over recommendation
A photo album i bought in Berlin
