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We’ve all heard it before and likely used it at some point.
where are you from?...
That question has caused me dread, distress, delight, shame, confusion.It still can.
I’ve learned to answer calmly. Over the years, I’ve experimented with all types of answers: funny ones, short ones, long ones, no answers, new answers.
I don’t take myself too seriously anymore. Contradictions and I get along much better nowadays. 😏
What has always fascinated me is how such a simple question can stir up so much.
Whether you’re a multiculturite, have parents from different backgrounds, are a third-culture kid, or simply don’t feel you belong in the place where you were born, sometimes a one- or two-word answer just feels like shortchange.
Maybe that’s a José problem. I don’t know.
A moving investigation
Hjemmefra mi hogar
I’m traversing Europe, questioning identity, belonging and this thing called home. Again... but this time on a bike. 😅
Follow the journey
Watch it. Read it.
Read
Field Note 006 🇳🇱 Hallo Nederland.
Contradictions or…? Deutschland: wet, headwinds… enjoyable. Nederlands: sunny, tailwinds… enjoyable.
Read the Field Notes on SubstackThe (unfinished) why
Sí, completely unnecessary. I know. Pity me. I suffer from FOMO and have convinced myself this might be a worthwhile opportunity to practise this whole filmmaker-documentarist thingy in public. Besides, I’m too young and too poor to buy a sports car to soothe my midlife crisis. Luckily, my wife Sofie and our son Valentino fully support this self-inflicted mission.
Life is a struggle. Particularly when you’re split between places. That split has been my burden. Yet being a multiculturite is also a blessing, and perhaps my unfair advantage.
Okay, José. Whoop-t-doo. Good for you. 😮💨
Truth is, I don’t know.
Maybe because I can, at least technically, and I don’t take that for granted.
Maybe because this journey is a mini-version of what I’m trying to do with my life: earn a living as a storyteller while navigating the AI revolution.
Maybe because the bumpy road to fatherhood taught me just how scarce time really is.
The seed was planted around my 30th birthday. Bjarke, my Danish teacher, gave me a book documenting a Dutchman’s journey from Amsterdam to Singapore.
As the wrapping fell away, the title stopped me. Amsterdam to Singapore... on a bicycle? Wait, what? 😳
Then came the jolt of wonder. Something I hadn’t felt for the longest time.
By the time I finished it, I couldn’t stop wondering whether I could do something like that.
That was almost a decade ago. Today, I’m finally finding out.
In the months leading up to this, I’ve been collecting reasons. Reasons for leaving. But what’s the point in polishing them now? I’m more interested in noticing how the why changes as I make my way south.
Maybe, deep down, I simply want to know whether I can. Maybe this is an escape valve from my neat life in the Nordics. Maybe I won’t make it all the way. The uncertainty is certainly part of the appeal.
A moving inquiry
Europa
I’m travelling from Copenhagen to Barcelona under my own leg power. Most of my life, travel has been ticket, machine, new place. New machine this time, except I’m doing the work and moving slowly. The direction is relatively clear. It’s the journey that’s the destination.
Strangers
I’ll converse with people I know who have made a life elsewhere. Strangers I meet on the road. Anyone, really, willing to share their story... and listen to me babble? 😅
Broadcast
Films, field notes and recordings will emerge while I’m moving. They’re my attempt to catch what I sense before hindsight tidies it up. This is an experiment in building in public. It’s my first time “bikepacking.” So I’m all in.
What if there are better questions?
Can home be multiple countries?
A place?
A language... or maybe a mixture of many?
A person?
A people?
A memory?
Something we carry and continually modify?
What do you love to do?
How do you like to spend your time?
I’m not looking for definitive answers. I’m just wondering what if.
I’m collecting parallels between people who left, people who stayed, the places that shaped us and the places we chose.
Simple tools. Complicated questions.
Angelica
Two circles. Eleven gears. A simple machine. My angel, accomplice and means of moving slowly enough to pay attention.
How does biking change what you perceive in people, the land and yourself?
Kammer Junker
Kammer Junker’s thin fabric and mesh walls become my proverbial snail shell, a practical experiment in how a packable shelter transforms into another home.
How do you develop roots while in motion?
Lily and Icarus
Cameras. Digital notepads. Connecting devices for everyone who isn’t physically with me on this adventure.
Can creating with the tools already in our pocket change our sense of what we’re capable of?
Direct from inside
Kammer Junker’s Corner
First transmission coming soon.
Where has the motley crew been?
Latest days on the saddle
The road so far
Each completed segment appears right here after it syncs with DURA.
Come along
Let’s see where this goes.
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Keep José watered 💦
Contributions put a little more water in the bottle and a little more road beneath Angelica’s Pirellis. Stripe lets you choose the amount.