Clima Now 2022 Spotlight

Dr. Chopf – How little is enough tour

Clima Now • 11.04.2024

In April 2023, I set off as Dr. Chopf with my bicycle, guitar, and the question „How little is enough?“. A fellow pilgrim responded: „As much as fits in my backpack.“ A beautiful image. After 100 days of researching sufficiency, I returned, richly endowed.

Now, the creative endeavor begins. Together with photographer Nicole Philipp, I am working on a book and an exhibition featuring inspiring portraits. Additionally, I am developing an interactive theater performance that fits on the luggage rack of my bicycle. With this, I will continue the journey, exploring the essence of simplicity and the essential. Creating spaces for encounters. In theaters, at events, in public spaces, and preferably outdoors in nature.

Hopeful artistic contributions to bring sufficiency as an important part of solving the climate crisis into societal discourse.

Thanks to the creative space provided by Clima Now, I was able to develop the character „Dr. Chopf,“ a singer-songwriter and storyteller from Bern, recognized by organizers and media as a creative mind in the context of sufficiency.

I released an album of Bernese German songs, featuring titles like „Weniger“ (Less), „Ja zum Klima“ (Yes to Climate), or „Nimm doch ds Velo“ (Take the Bike), and had the opportunity to give extensive interviews. The tour „Ein 500 km grosses Herz fürs Klima“ (A 500 km Big Heart for the Climate) and the campaign „White Friday – Happy with Less Consumption“ received a positive response from the media, with coverage even on the news program „10vor10“ on SRF.

Personally, the time spent outdoors in nature was incredibly enriching and unforgettable. For example, the tour „I BIKE to move it“ from the source to the mouth of the Aare river, or the hike with a memorial stone for environmental activist Martin Vosseler to the center of Switzerland.

The book „Imagine“ by Rob Hopkins was a guiding inspiration right at the beginning of my journey. Yes, we need our imagination to find solutions outside the box. Yes, we need new stories that inspire courage and invite us to embark on a journey, creating a sense of excitement for the future! We need a travel brochure as a guide towards the necessary societal transformation towards an earth-compatible humanity.

And we must, with regard to the climate crisis and global injustice, ask ourselves about the essentials. „It’s about recognizing how little I need,“ writes John von Düffel, and further: „When the little corresponds to the essential, that is happiness… Happiness is a form of alignment of action with my own thinking and feeling… Enough is not much. It is the measure that suits me… When I know what is enough for me, I know who I am… Enough would be the end that succeeds.“ The book „The Little and the Essential“ by John von Düffel crossed my path in the second half of my journey and encapsulates what I am searching for: Happiness in the encounter with myself.

So, one evening in June, I pedaled my way up the Col de Jaman after 1000 kilometers – revolution by revolution. Cowbells, green meadows, and just me and my bike. Eventually, I reached the top, and before me unfolded a vast view of Lake Geneva in a magical evening atmosphere. What an unforgettable moment!

Telling stories, asking questions, and creating a space for pause, for encounters with the world around us and with ourselves. That’s precisely what theater can do. And that’s exactly what I’m working on now in the creative implementation of my research, aiming to create hopeful prospects for the future in the context of current challenges and to pose the central question: „How little is enough?“