In summer 2021, I joined a project by Polyrama to create a performance based on the real stories of people living on the margins. I was assigned Björn, a homeless man from Spandau who lived in Neukölln who had disappeared. All that remained of him were a recording, some photos, and a few stories.

I explored the places where he had lived, trying to imagine his world. The emptiness he left behind became the heart of the performance, titled “Wo ist Björn?”

I invited my colleague Silvia Borello to Berlin. Together, we built the show around his absence.

Three days before the performance, as we rehearsed under a bridge in Spandau, Björn appeared: alive, curious, and full of energy. We asked him to stay away until the very end. And he did. His unexpected entrance became the perfect, poetic finale.

I still don’t know if the show changed anything, for him or for the audience.
But I remember his hug, his tears, and his eyes that night.

And now?

Wo ist Björn?

Hi Björn, wherever you are

Willy