99 WORDS WITH GUIDO VAN DER WERVE

GUIDO VAN DER WERVE, NUMMER DERTIEN, EFFUGIO B: PORTRAIT OF THE ARTIST AS A MOUNTAINEER, 2010, TWO FRAMED DIGITAL C-PRINTS, ONE FRAMED TEXT, EACH PRINT: 58.1 X 44.13 cm
Courtesy of the artist

On January 19th, 2010, I reached the summit of Aconcagua in Argentina, 6.962 meters.

I was looking for some wisdom in this period, and was hoping to find some at the summit. I had heard stories like “if you make it to the summit, you realise it’s all worth it” and “you climb up a boy and you come down a man”.

After two weeks of pain and suffering, we finally reached the summit. Besides being completely exhausted I didn’t feel anything.

Guido van der Werve