1. Andrew Mc Auley (1968-2007) crosses the wide and wild sea between Tasmania and New Zealand in a very small kayak : 1600 km, 30 days. Family, friends and renowned oceanologists advise him NOT to go. Yet he leaves. On the 31st day, thirty km from New Zealand, he emits an emergency signal. Thereafter, all that’s left is silence.

2. Bas Jan Ader (1942-1975) is a Dutch conceptual artist. Falling and failing are his mean artistic themes. To fall is to fail: he falls with his bike in a canal in Amsterdam, he falls off the roof, he falls on a land road, he falls out of a tree etc. It could have been monkeytricks or just the presentation of falling. But he records everything he does, in film and photography as well as in drawings and paintings. This way, he creates an oeuvre which is more than the actions on their own. The physical falling becomes a metaphor of failing. Bas Jan Aders surrender to nature has a metaphysical character. It is precisely in this short moment between letting go and not yet fall or be fallen. During the development of his last performance to reach Europe all by himself in a tiny sailing boat, he falls out of the boat in the water of the Atlantic Ocean and disappears forever: In Search of the Miraculous.

3. Philippe Petit (1949) is a French rope dancer. His biggest, highest and most dangerous rope walk takes place on 7 August 1974 in New York: together with his collaborators he illegally enters the World Trade Center and reaches the roof. There, they hang a cable between the two towers. On this cable, Philippe Petit walks for 45 minutes. Below, the police is waiting for him.