Spectacular suicide at Brandenburg Gate avoided - "Berlin Samurai" grants Interview
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| Christophe Joachim Paul Didillon (35) |
Question (Q): Mr Didillon, on February 1, 2007 you sat down under the Brandenburg Gate, holding a samurai sword in your hands. Did you really want to commit suicide?
Answer (A): I was indeed strong-willed and ready to die, but when I sat there, the head of the sword touching my waist, I gathered all my thoughts about doing or not doing it, and suddenly my gut instinct decided NOT to do it. That wouldn’t be the way for me to leave the world. I have to life and it’s my duty to leverage all my talents God presented me…
Q: Some press and media reported you wanted to commit suicide because of your distraught love to Kirsten Dunst.
A: Stop, please!! I admire Kirsten Dunst very much, that’s a matter of fact. I believe she is a very sensitive and soulful young lady, far ahead of other ladies in her age, and therefore she deeply impresses me. However, my action under the Brandenburg Gate has absolutely nothing to do with her.
Q: Anyway, you made a WALK OF FLAME for her in the last year, walked on foot from San Francisco to Los Angeles.
A: Yes, that’s right. And frankly spoken I was quite disappointed about receiving no answer from her. So I never received information about her delighting my self-painted present, which I carried on my back for more than 300 miles. However, I don’t even know if she was informed by her management at all. Maybe she doesn’t even know anything about my Walk of Flame and my present for her until yet. Even though I am quite unhappy and sad about this, I truly don’t want to cause her pain. To distress her emotions is finally not what I proposed when I made my Walk of Flame for her. Kirsten Dunst and my action under the Brandenburg Gate had absolutely no relation, it had completely another background. Referring to the real background, I just gave a very detailed declaration to the press.
Q: “Welchen Wert hat die Wuerde eines Menschen?” – How much is the human dignity? You asked and tried to appeal to the people for more respectfulness of others?
A: That’s correct! In my opinion the interests of humanity and human dignity are more and more eclipsed by commercial insensibility, sexual and economical ruthlessness, and moreover by an increasing iciness in the interpersonal area. Many people can’t cope with this, and they fall through the cracks. They die, after they have lost all their power and are – on top of everything – ashamed of this. So this problem damages and destroys human life’s – surely far more than you and me dare to believe. An open discussion about this problem should have to take place in society, but everybody remains silent, prefers to talk about new mobile phones, his last journey or the money of his neighbour instead. There is a lot of going wrong in our modern times, and last but not least my adventure under the Brandenburg Gate showed me this for another time. I “unhurriedly” sat there with the sword targeted at my waist for nearly half an hour, before even one person tried to talk to me. Many passers-by and visitors walked past me, and it seemed to me, they found a man sitting there with a sword in his hand, obviously aiming to commit suicide, absolutely normal and usual. Some passers-by made photos with their cameras and mobile phones, or made jokes when they went past me. After half an hour a security man became aware of me, when he made his ordinary patrol. Nobody had informed him before. I was nearly grateful, when the police paid attention to me finally.
Q: A success of your suicide maybe would have overshadowed the Golden Camera Award. What induced you to select the Golden Camera of all things as the motive for your action?
A: Of course, I felt sorrow when I thought about potentially disrupting your festivity by my death, but I had to balance – and finally decided to take this opportunity. It was the best one to reach the broad public and so to appeal to a large amount of people. That’s why I extra travelled to Berlin. I could take the photo from the German actress Jennifer Nitsch and say to the people, “Hey, guys. Suicide as a result of depressions is a general problem of the whole society. It draws through all social levels in the society. Even movie stars are not saved from this. Let’s commemorate Jenny. She had gone. And don’t forget to remember all the others, which weren’t in the spotlight and weren’t admired like movie stars!” It was clear to me from the very first that my appeal wouldn’t change the world, but I hope that it reached at least the one or the other human being. Maybe he, she or it thinks about it, “How much is the human dignity?”
Q: When your released your press statement, you expressed that the trauma of your first love in youth afflicted you very strong, let break your heart and feel very doleful for more than twenty years until today. There was no way for you to overcome. What do you think; could you be able to retry your action under the Brandenburg Gate in case of a similar traumatic shock situation?
A: No, definitely not. When I sat down with the sword in my hand, face-to-face with the death, I came to the conclusion that from now on life will have a new meaning for me. My life until yet was over, but I wouldn’t die today. Suddenly I felt new born. It was a very strange but nevertheless great feeling of invincibility of my soul. Even in this moment I feel like newly getting to know myself, discovering my true strengths. I want to live in every case, want to find my dear girlfriend, marry her and found a family with her later on. Besides that I want to use all my animal spirits to make my contribution to reanimate the importance of human dignity in our modern society. There are many ways to fight for this goal, and I think, the best present you can give to others is to handle carefully with their feelings, to let them feel happy. I am an artist, a painter, too, and referring to this, my ideas are very variegated; nevertheless this matter concerns everybody.
Q: Mr Didillon, can you give some information about your next aims in future?
A: After my therapy and treatment in a health resort I want to travel for a few weeks to Scandinavia, presumably to Norway. I am intending to emigrate to Scandinavia, because I appreciate the mentality of Scandinavian people: “Live and let live”. That’s just my motto, too.
Q: Mr Didillon, thank you very much for this wonderful interview. I am wishing you all the best and good luck in reaching your goals in the future. Good speed!
A: I myself have to thank you. Thank you very much for your visit. I was very pleased to talk with you, and it did very good to me.
END of interview
Christophe Joachim Paul Didillon (born 1971 in Aurich / Germany) found his vocation to become an artist (painter) when he studied for one year in China. From 1997 to 2004, after high school examination and professional training, Didillon studied Sinology, Law and History at Philipps University Marburg and Tongji University Shanghai. He did a photo journey with Trans-Siberian Railway from Beijing to Moscow. In the year of 2004, after being admitted into the Paradox artist group (www.paradox-online.de), Christophe Didillon had exhibitions at the Parliament of Hessen / Germany and museums in China, beyond that at the internet gallery of German Foreign Ministry. Didillon created paintings for Crown Princess Viktoria of Sweden and Michael Gorbatchev. In May 2006 Didillon made his WALK OF FLAME, a pilgrimage from San Francisco to Hollywood, dedicating his pilgrimage to the actress Kirsten Dunst and to his grandfather Johannes Schumacher, who had been Prisoner of War in World War II in Russia, and escaped walking hundreds of miles home to his family in Germany. At the moment he uses an art scholarship and lives in the Flath Villa in the city of Bad Segeberg / Germany. Referring to the motto of his scholarship, “Search Of A Mermaid”, Christophe dresses girls’ and ladies’ long and sleek hair with water and wetgel for giving it a “mermaid look”, and he uses the dresses to create photos and paintings. He gave his extensive collection of several hundred of historical fire extinguishers, begun in his youth, to the Museum of Fire Safety (Feuerwehrmuseum) in Zeven / Germany, beyond that he gave his voluminous collection of several thousand international vehicle registration plates, begun in his early age of seven, to a Vehicle Museum (Oldtimer und Spielzeugmuseum) in Ostermarsch / Germany.
You will find more information referring to Christophe Didillon, his life and his artistic producing at www.christophe-didillon.de and at the internet search engines.
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