formula to let the grass grow, performance and installation, 2020

 

 

a work in collaboration with SpiegelimSpiegelKollektiv

 

 

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“Formula to Let the Grass Grow” was a 48-hour-long experiment that took place in June 2020. The title is a paradox: in German, “das Gras wachsen zu lassen” holds the meaning of letting something heal, while in English the saying “to let the grass grow under your feet” describes the time that passes while doing nothing.

In the middle of the pandemic, imagining a dystopic future where the earth is turned into a desert, a practice of contemplation is both useless and necessary. Nature does grow again without the need of doing something. The performance is a ritual that involves sound and movement as a form of contemplation while living in the space of an abandoned electric power plant for 48 hours.

The performance was sound-based, using contact microphones, recorded soundscapes from natural sources installed through displaced speakers, improvised music instruments made of strings, elastics, glasses filled with water, and two voices.