Swiss sociologist Lucius Burckhardt was born in Davos in 1925 (Switzerland). The automobile was beginning to conquer the world, but not yet the mountain health resort. Since 1900, there had been a general ‘car ban’ in the Swiss Canton of Graubünden. Burckhardt was born between two referendums. In January 1925, the vote was still ‘no’ to cars, but in June it was ‘yes’. Private cars have been permitted in Graubünden for 100 years now. Burckhardt continually explored the impact of the automobile on our living environment. In the 1980s, together with his wife Annemarie Burckhardt-Wackernagel, his landscape planning students and invited artists in Kassel (Germany), he developed ‘strollology’, in German known as ‘Promenadologie’. Strollology questions our perception of the environment in an experimental, pedestrian way. ‘100 Years of Lucius and Annemarie Burckhardt’ and ‘100 Years of the Automobile in Graubünden’ provided Swiss strollologist Christian Ratti and Swiss walking artist Marie-Anne Lerjen in collaboration with architect Jürg Grassl with the opportunity to conduct an experiment in Davos: Can the (heavily trafficked) promenade in Davos be explored ‘strollologically’? Joining the experiment was a tiny snail from the collection that Burckhardt started in Davos in his youth. A Walk at the Davos promenade two days before World Car-Free Day.

With support from AUTO FREI AG, the Lucius and Annemarie Burckhardt Foundation, the Davos Cultural Commission and SWISSLOS/Cultural Promotion, Canton of Graubünden.