Deserted Boat Drifting Towards the Moon

Deserted Boat Drifting Towards the Moon brings artist Uwe Wittwer’s watercolours and writer and poet Jürg Halter’s lyric together in a multi-layered dialogue. Inspired by Japanese director Kenji Mizoguchi’s legendary movie Ugetsu Monogatari (Rain Moon Tales, 1953), they intend to trigger a new, imaginary film in the mind of the viewer-reader. It is not a self-contained story they offer. Rather, artist and poet have created a subtle play with hints, fragments, comments, and further narratives. Some of Wittwer’s images are illustrative, others refuse a direct reading. Likewise, Halter’s short poems in some cases are unambiguous and simple, some are equivocal and elude immediate access.

In a poetic-painterly manner, the book explores questions such as “what is one’s own in the foreign?”, “when does humanity turn into inhumanity?”, or “Is comfort to be found in art?”

Text in English and German.