SO MANY WAYS – BRIAN

Brian – Costa Del Silencio, Tenerife
31 years, from Barcelona, Spain

The first Corona lockdown crossed Brian’s plans to travel to Mexico for an extended road trip to take some time off. He had good jobs as a freelance editor and motion designer in the advertising industry and a flat in Barcelona. However, he had felt like a goldfish in a water glass for some time, always swimming in circles, as if he were experiencing the same film every day. The pandemic forced him to plan anew. A strange feeling of having to build something to make a home came over him. He put the money he had saved for his trip to Mexico into a van, which he planned to convert himself.

After seven years in Barcelona, he liquidated his flat and moved back in to his mother’s house in the countryside with his two cats. There, he was able to quietly convert his van in a garage over a period of several months. He had no clear concept for the van, it was a creative journey. Unlike his more intellectual work in the film industry, here he could create something new with his hands. As building material, he used scraps of wood that he recycled. Even now, there is a box in the van with small pieces of wood he found somewhere. Sometimes, months later, he discovers a place in the van, where he can use one or the other piece. The work is never finished, it remains a creative process. This is what makes his van so special.

Brian travels with his cat, Nolan. His second cat didn’t quite want to get used to life in the van. She had to stay behind with Brian’s mother. The decision to live in the van forces Brian to break out of his comfort zone, to try new things, to dare. The journey has broadened his horizons. Meetings with people and the new possibilities often leave him speechless. He feels a whole range of new emotions that he doesn’t know from his life in the big city. His dream for the future is to build his own small wooden house on a forest plot and live there.