Katzzeit

In autumn 2025, I spent a two months at an artist residency in Italy and got to know the village cats. The cats belong to no one, but people have a duty to look after their well-being. The law also protects their right to remain in their familiar surroundings. Their lives are not entirely carefree, of course. The worlds of cats and humans are separate, yet meet in the village’s narrow alleyways.

I thought of Walter Benjamin’s concept of Jetztzeit, the idea of moments when past and present meet in a flash and history opens itself to a new interpretation. Could a similar flash help us understand the reality of another species, or are we prisoners of our own interpretation even then?