Peter Riek: OLD MAN ODYSSEY: A Bicycle Odyssey in Twenty-Four Days, Street Drawings and Postcard Songs

A journey of more than 2,000 km by bicycle from Germany through Austria, Switzerland, Italy, and Albania to Greece, to the island of Ithaca, in 24 days. Daily a drawing with chalk on the street, daily a postcard that the artist sends to himself at home, and Homer's Odyssey in the saddlebag. Peter Riek tells his OLD MAN ODYSSEY in dialogue with the spherical soundscapes of Lothar Heinle. Peter Riek is an artist who exclusively engages with drawing in its various forms. In addition to drawings on paper or wood, he produces wall drawings, carpet drawings, iron drawings, and street drawings, as well as site-specific installations in both museum contexts and public spaces. Increasingly, "drawing outdoors" plays an important role for Peter Riek. These are works created outside the studio during long hikes, bicycle trips, or explorations of the surroundings. They are simple chalk drawings, fleeting and quickly perishable notes on asphalt, which are documented photographically and thus form the starting point for digital or screen prints on paper, wood, metal, or canvas, and often large-scale installations. Peter Riek, born in 1960 in Heilbronn, studied at the Academy of Fine Arts Stuttgart and has received scholarships from the Baden-Württemberg Art Foundation, the Cité des Arts Paris, and the Bartels Foundation Basel, as well as various art awards. Numerous exhibitions and projects in Germany and abroad have made him regionally known as a draftsman.