Philippe Petit, the high wire artist famed for walking across a wire stretched between the twin towers of the World Trade Center, came to Oberlin to lead workshops on creativity as part of the Emerging Arts Program. Petit led two workshops this week for professor Linda Wientraub’s Emerging Arts course and gave an open lecture entitled “The First Step” on Monday night.

How Does He Do It? “My friends tell me ‘Be careful!’ when I cross the street, but when I’m on the wire they are happy.” (photo by Tom Shortliffe)

Petit, a genius for accomplishing small and large artistic endeavors, has performed high wire walks across five continents — some supported and requested by cities and others stealthy surprises for lucky observers. A few examples include walks between the Palestinian and Jewish quarters of Jerusalem, Grand Central Station, Notre Dame, the Eiffel Tower and a walk in Frankfurt, Germany. He is presently planning a walk across a section of the Grand Canyon. To Petit, high wire walks are theatrical expressions of art, rather than entertaining circus acts. “This is a quest for perfection,” Petit said. “What is beautiful is the path, and what is nice is that the path has no end.”
It was clear from a young age that Petit was destined to be a child of the arts. At six, Petit was already juggling in the streets and told his father, “I want to be a theatrical director!” A fervent connoisseur of medieval history, Petit learned much of his trade from old texts. He mentioned a seven page book from the 1800s from which he learned a card trick. Petit kept accumulating talents, and became a well-rounded street performer, integrating talents as a magician, mime and tightrope walker.
Petit says that the street was where he got his education, and that is an important aspect to his methods of learning. “I was expelled from five different schools by doing magic under my desk,” Petit said, “Life taught me subjects that are not taught in school, like lectures on tenacity for the insane, symposiums on thought provocation, engineering by intuition.”

Monday night’s lecture focused on the principles of creativity by intuition, though Petit stressed the essential relationship between spontaneity and rigorous planning. Petit spends years, even decades, working on a high wire project, and is involved in every step of the process — from the walk’s conception to the logistical details of the wire and supporting structures. “I am everywhere because my life depends on it,” said Petit.
“It’s really moving when a person who does such unbelievable things with his life can speak in a way to apply it to other people’s daily lives,” said senior Ryan Miller, who attended Monday’s lecture. “Because I can’t devote my life to just one thing, it’s really amazing to see someone direct their lives in such a specific direction. What I really liked was how, even though what he does seems so clownish, he takes it so seriously, sees it as theater. Probably most people who watch him just see it as some spectacle, not necessarily art.”
When asked why he has chosen such a dangerous profession, Petit admits his art may seem like that of a madman. “It’s very strange, I love life. I am not at all death wishing, but I am not afraid of death. I would not say ‘I give up’— that’s why I am so careful. I am so happy with what I do,” Petit said.

Petit’s 1974 walk between the World Trade Center’s twin towers took nine years from conception to actualization. Petit would sneak up to the roof daily to sit and plan. “I disguised myself as an engineer or a journalist…to get in,” said Petit. “My job was to daydream at that time, knowing it was impossible.”
“Nixon was resigning and in some papers I was page one, he page two. It was a performance not just with New York, but with the entire world.”
Petit’s twin towers walk holds a poignant symbolism after last week’s tragedy. “I love my illegal walks. I loved the World Trade Center. I couldn’t talk when I heard about the tragedy,” Petit said. Petit suggested that in an ideal world, the country would rebuild the towers and let him walk across as a symbol of resilience in the face of destruction. “We should not stop creating,” Petit said. “We have to continue to look up even as we are walking on the ashes of disaster.”