A man with a whistle in his mouth draws a route on a numbered wooden sign in the forest

THE SUITCASE

Client
Own project
Date
2023, renewed in 2026
Roles
Concept, Experience Design, Realisation

A relay adventure through the forest, written by every traveller who joins

The Suitcase is a relay adventure that can be played in almost any forest. It begins with a single arrow sign on a pole, pointing into the trees: THE SUITCASE – 95 m.

Walk 95 metres in that direction and you find the next sign, with a new direction and a new distance, decorated in coloured pencil by the travellers who came before you. Sign by sign, the trail leads a group or a lone walker to an old, well-travelled suitcase.

Inside are blank signs, a letter, a disposable camera, markers and a wrapped parcel with a note: it may only be opened once all the signs have been used. The letter asks a favour. The suitcase has reached the end of its 40-year career, and before it retires it would love to make 40 more short journeys with loving people.

An open vintage suitcase holding numbered wooden arrow signs on bamboo poles and a row of colourful markersThe typed letter from The Suitcase to the traveller who finds it

So every visitor becomes part of the adventure. They take the suitcase on a walk of no more than a hundred steps, take a photo of the two of them together, and place a new sign that leads the next traveller to where it now rests. The route is never designed: it is written by everyone who walks it.

A woman leans against a festival signpost full of hand-painted arrows, one of them pointing to The SuitcaseA traveller points at a small numbered arrow sign standing in the dry grass at the edge of a hedge

The final journey

Sign by sign, the trail grows longer and the suitcase travels deeper into the forest, carried a hundred steps at a time by people who will never meet each other. The disposable camera fills up with portraits of strangers and an old suitcase, each taken at a different spot along the way.

When the last sign has been placed, the final travellers may open the parcel.

A slate memorial stone engraved with: The Suitcase, 1986 – 2026, beloved fellow traveller. He travelled far, but never alone. 40 final journeys, shared with loving strangers. May he rest where his final journey ended.

Where it has travelled

The Suitcase first set out in 2023 at Stone Soup France, created together with Camilla van Wirdum. In 2026 it was renewed for a new series of journeys at The College of Extraordinary Experiences in Poland.

Thomas Lievestro and Camilla van Wirdum take a selfie in the forest, pointing at a colourfully decorated arrow sign

Meet the team