Max Huwyler (Text), Dieter Leuenberger (Ill.)

Die Stadtgartenschnecke

«Wenn ihr in der Stadt einmal ein Tram seht, das so langsam fährt wie eine Schnecke kriecht, dann schaut genau hin, ob da nicht vor dem Tram eine Schnecke unterwegs ist. Vielleicht die Stadtgartenschnecke von der Schaffhauserstrasse.»

Max Huwyler and Dieter Leuenberger’s story of the snail residing in the municipal park tells of our impatience when things do not turn out the way we want them to: after the long-awaited storm the snail starts off on its way. Where to, perhaps even she does not know. All across Zurich, past little girls, underneath moving trucks and right onto the tracks of the tramline 7. On these she crawls out of town, until a tram nears from behind ... The snail is lucky. The tram driver stops and gets out of his cabin, despite indignant passengers and the traffic jam he thus produces. What he does next is not written in any instructional handbook for tram drivers. He bends down to the snail and talks to it: «The people want to go home. They don’t carry their houses on their backs like you.» He speaks slowly and clearly, because he thinks the snail would not understand otherwise.

Max Huwyler tells a philosophical story about urban haste and natural slowness, about the mundane and the surreal. Leuenberger illustrates with large-format, photorealistic images heightened by light effects and surprising perspectives. A picture book to philosophise about snails and small events together, and a book which changes one’s view of everyday life.

(Berenice Geser, translation by Simon Froehling)
Source: SIKJM

Translation of title: Snail of a City

Zytglogge, Bern 1999

ISBN: 978-3-7296-0585-5