Christophe Didillon walks 300 miles for Kirsten Dunst

Norden/San Francisco, October 18, 2006. With reference to the famous “Walk of Fame” on the Hollywood Boulevard, where movie stars perpetuate their memory in stars on the sidewalk, the German artist Christophe Didillon (35) recently did a pilgrimage for his flame, called “Walk of Flame”. His flame with the name Kirsten Dunst is an actress in Hollywood. “Of course, this sounds fairly crazy”, Didillon admits. But why shouldn’t he at least try it. “Nothing venture nothing have!” Equipped with bag, baggage and pilgrim stick Christophe started his WALK OF FLAME on May 5, on the

Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco and arrived at Kirsten’s Management in Beverly Hills on June 6. As long as he remembers Christophe Didillon hasn’t been an imitator: “When others told me, “it’s impossible”, they just awoke my pioneer spirit and provoked my efforts to defeat their objections. Furthermore, from an early age I have been a creative guy, attaching more importance to my intuition and to my inner voice than to the opinions of others. The common sense is able to commit errors, and my inspirations never failed. In last February I received an unmistakable sign from my inner voice how maybe to manage to find a way to my inaccessible Flame.” The idea was born and took a tangible shape within a few days or weeks. And this is his story:
Full of spirit I travelled in the beginning of May to California to go on a pilgrimage from San Francisco to Hollywood for Kirsten Dunst. My pilgrimage was not only dedicated to her, but also to my grandfather Johannes Schumacher, who had been Prisoner of War in World War II in Russia. He escaped walking hundreds of miles home to his family in Germany. Provided with my painted present for my Flame, with my backpack, weighing nearly 40 pounds, and my pilgrim stick I started on Friday, 2006-05-05, high noon, in the middle of the Golden Gate Bridge, and arrived at Kirsten’s management in Beverly Hills on Tuesday, 06-06-06, 3:00 pm. I had many adventures on my road, met many very helpful guys, and learned much about the hospitality of the Californian people. I visited the service of different religious confessions and received invitations for overnight stays (thank you very much for your hospitality, Tim and Kirstin in Half Moon Bay!). In many city halls I received enthusiastic receptions, and the mayors’ offices awarded me the seals of their cities, stamped my book of pilgrimage to give official evidence my Walk of Flame. The mayor of San Luis Obispo (SLO) was very enthusiastic about my trip and told me about his journey to Germany one year before. In Montara (2006-05-06) and Pigeon Point (2006-05-08), there were historic lighthouses with youth hostels, where I stayed for one day each. There were whales in the Ocean at Pescadero, and I saw many wild flowers in all colors on the rocks. I stayed in Santa Cruz (2006-05-09), Aptos (2006-05-11), Pajaro (2006-05-11). I didn’t find a hostel in Pajaro, and so I stayed for one night in the Pajaro Rescue Mission, where I was cordially welcomed. They all were very grateful for my story and the variation from their usual life, and was served a very good meal. When I told the guys, I was doing this pilgrimage in order to impress a girl, they were absolutely fascinated. I will never forget the alarm call the next morning at 5:00 a.m. for the rest of my life: “Buenos dias, guys!” I am a collector of international police and fire department patches, and when I met the Chief of Police in Watsonville (2006-05-12), he was very nice and invited me to a nice cup of coffee and exchanged police patches with me. All the officers in the police department were very nice and admired my efforts to walk to Beverly Hills and Hollywood. I had a short stay in Marina (2006-05-12) and arrived at Monterey, where its beauty induced me to stay for three nights. I walked to Carmel (2006-05-14) and had a look at the art gallery scene for establishing contacts. I myself am an artist, a painter, and I am interested in exhibitions within the USA. There are steep slopes and rocks and national parks at the coastal strip between Big Sur and SLO (San Luis Obispo), and nearly nobody is living there. Confronted with the option to walk several days without any friend or companion and without any safe stay for the night through this wild region I decided to travel with the Greyhound Bus from Salinas to SLO (2006-05-15). From now on I could spend more time in each city and its surroundings and I didn’t need to walk straight from city to city any more. At the youth hostel in SLO I met Yarets from Minsk (Belarus). Since 2000 he travels alone with his motorcycle through the whole world. Yarets has already travelled through 65 countries, is deaf and dumb and wants to get a record in the Guinness Book of World Records (www.yarets.com gives more info). Staying in SLO for a few days I walked to the coastal cities of Pismo Beach, Grover Beach and Arroyo Grande (2006-05-16). After a short visit to Santa Maria (2006-05-17) I arrived at Santa Barbara (SB) (2006-08-17), where I found a cheap tourist hostel and stayed for a couple of days. From there I could walk and explore all the surrounding villages and cities. On one evening Yarets came to my hostel in SB by chance and we greeted each other like old friends. A few days later I met an old couple from San Diego, travelling to SB in order to participate in the celebration of their grandson’s examination at Santa Barbara City College (SBCC). The whole family was very nice to me, and they invited me to have lunch on their houseboat in the harbor. This boat was the sister ship of Al Capone’s one, built in 1927. When I visited the Santa Barbara City College, I met the president, who wrote in my book of pilgrimage personally and let it sealed with the seal of the college. Starting from Santa Barbara I walked to the famous Old Mission of Santa Barbara, explored the villages and cities like Goleta (2006-05-22), Carpinteria and Summerland (2006-05-23). The Battalion Chief of SB Fire Department welcomed me very cordially, told me that his daughter lived in Bremen / Germany for a time (my sister Susanne lives there today). In Ojai I was invited to listen to a choir singing at church (2006-05-25), the city clerk of Oxnard personally stuck the seal of the city into my book of pilgrimage (2006-05-26), I met Anastasia from Ventura Visitors Office, who was very kind and helpful to me in finding the next cheap accommodation (thank you very much, Anastasia!). On my trip I met Gordon, a very eccentric but nevertheless friendly Wandervogel club member. He has a farm hostel near Ojai city (Dear Gordon, thank you very much for informing me just on the day of my departure about the snappish habits of your neighbors’ eight dogs. They ran after me and pestered me on the bicycle you lent to me, when I drove along the dirt-road to the city (…and back!). If I had known earlier, be sure, I wouldn’t have left the farm area for the two days of my stay in your farm hostel. However, I didn’t know before, how quickly I can ride a bike :-) ). The following days I walked through Santa Monica (2006-05-30), Malibu (2006-05-31), Beverly Hills (2006-06-01), West Hollywood (2006-06-02) and, last but not least, to the Walk of Fame in Hollywood. Near the Walk of Fame I stayed in the Orange Drive Manor Hostel for the last few days of my Walk of Flame. I can say it was a very strange but nevertheless great feeling of proud to walk with my walking stick, engraved WALK OF FLAME, over the Walk of Fame with all its stars - the end of my pilgrimage wasn’t far any more. Besides that I didn’t feel like one of these typical tourists, who travel to Hollywood only to have a glimpse at the riches of other guys, to buy junk souvenirs, to later boast to their colleagues and neighbors that they had made a journey to Hollywood. All that didn’t impress me much. When I visited the HOLLYWOOD HIGH SCHOOL, the assistant principal wrote the last record in my pilgrimage book, dated 2006-06-05. Entering the school building the janitor asked me -jokingly-, why I, a young guy from Germany, was walking through California this month of all months, while people from all over the world wanted to visit Germany to see the Soccer World Championship. After all, the last stage of my Walk of Flame led me back to Kirsten’s management in Beverly Hills on 2006-06-06. The staff of the William Morris Agency was very kind to me, and they accepted my painting and my pilgrimage book in order to forward it to Kirsten. They were very polite and impressed, when I told them I came from Germany and had walked more than 300 miles along the Californian coastal strip in order to present my painting to Kirsten and to meet her once in my life. Finally they told me to be very patient in waiting for her answer, because it would probably take several weeks. When I left the agency it was clear to me that my Walk of Flame was now ultimately over. Sum total of my pilgrimage:
I walked 10 – 12 miles a day, altogether 300 miles in the whole month. On my Walk of Flame I found 77 cents in coins on the streets, and till my departure to Germany more than $ 1 altogether. While the weight of my backpack was growing and growing, I lost more than 24 pounds of weight. There was only one day of rain on my whole trip. That was the sum total of my pilgrimage, but for what am I hoping, what do I expect? I wrote Kirsten a letter, enclosed it together with my painting and the pilgrimage book full of seals, stamps and reports in one packet. It is one of my heart’s wishes to meet her personally once in my life, but I do not expect anything from her she doesn’t want to do. I don’t want her to feel being under any obligation to me. It is her free decision to fulfil my heart’s desire, and to react to my Walk of Flame, dedicated to her. I am sure it will have impressed her. But as long as I am not expecting anything from her, I just won’t be disappointed. May happen, what has to happen. I did my very best, gave all my physical and psychical power to this task, laughed and cried, met many great and kind people on my Walk of Flame, saw breathtakingly beautiful landscapes, and I can only say, my pilgrimage was a great success in every case. Till now my pilgrimage gave me more than I ever expected. And that’s why I am happy. Finally I want to thank all these wonderful and helpful people in the churches, the cities, at the police and fire departments and all the other places and areas, where I found people full of amicable feelings and with open hearts.

PR contact:
DIDILLON-ART
Christophe Didillon
Eschenweg 1
D-26506 Norden / Germany
Telefon +49 49 31/120 22
Telefax +49 49 31/120 22
eMail: didillon-art@web.de
www.didillon.org

Further information (till end of February 2007):
Christophe Didillon
Stipendiat der Otto-Flath-Stiftung
c/o Villa Flath
Bismarckallee 5
D-23795 Bad Segeberg / Germany
Telefon +49 45 51/87 99 01
eMail: didillon-art@web.de
www.christophe-didillon.de

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. 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. 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.