Side Walk

by Renate Aller

In April 2020, when New York was in lockdown and the epicentre of the pandemic, Renate Aller created the project side walk. She hosted friends and neighbors on her sidewalk or visited them in their street, her camera in self timer mode, recording these masked encounters at a safe 6 feet distance. With voices muted by masks we learn to communicate with our eyes and body language, finding our bearings in a new emotional landscape. These side-walk visits created a deep sense of community where community had been forced apart. This project is in the spirit of Rainer Maria Rilke: "[...] that...