Cities And Memory

"The field recording of a pedestrian crossing signal at Savignyplatz, Berlin, triggered immediately the memory of myself, in my twenties, living not far from Savignyplatz, learning to ride a bike as an adult. Terrified. Because I never had a bike as a child, my parents couldn’t afford one and where I grew up, bikes were for boys anyway."Translation of the text in the piece:Leaving the house, on Niebuhrstrasse, I turn right. I cross Leibnitz, Wieland and Schlüter. I reach Bleitreustrasse, turn left and keep going.I've repeated the route to myself several times. Not to learn the names of the streets that cross mine, but to keep my mind occupied. And not to think about the atavistic fear that makes me feel a hole in my stomach and makes me tremble all over.Because learning to ride a bike as an adult, at 25, is a frightening thing.Once you're moving it's almost easy. But there's the beginning and the end, and there are the cars and the car doors, and the dogs and the children and the stones and the pavements and