This performance work was commissioned by Kunstenlab and BRUT for Kelderfest in Deventer. The work is specifically made for the cellar of 'De Drie Haringen', a monumental building in the center of Deventer, NL.
Imagine this: you are standing with your feet in the IJssel, toes in the sand, watching all the water flowing by. Now imagine that under your feet, in the subsoil, hundreds of times more water flows slowly...
Recently, we already got acquainted with this water, the groundwater. It rained a lot, the rivers were high, and the fields were overflowing with groundwater; just like our cellars. But who exactly is this groundwater? Where does she come from, where is she going and how are we connected to her? The centuries-old well in De Drie Haringen has known this groundwater for a long time and gives us access to her stories.
This work was made with, for and by the soil and groundwater under Deventer, with a message for future earthlings and admirers.
The work consists of a soundscape of fieldrecordings from water and groundsounds, poems, highlighted basins with groundwater and ceramic bowls with fragments engraved in clay slip from the IJssel . In the performance all the elements are brought together by getting groundwater from the well, reciting the poems and letting the bowls and the groundwater meet; to interchange their knowledge, creating visual reflections on the ceiling.
Photo by Viorica Cernica
Photo by Viorica Cernica
Photo by Viorica Cernica
Photo by Viorica Cernica
Photo by Viorica Cernica
Soundsape of DeWaterWakers
(Selection of poems, in Dutch)
Ongezien en ongemerkt
Onhoorbaar en ogend stil
Onder onze voeten
Stiekem stromend
Smeltend naar beneden
Sijpelend door de bodem
Door regenval en smeltweer
en Dagen van hoogwater
Die het peil doen stijgen
Gevangen in diepere gronden
Gedragen door de lagen
en de Gedraging van de aarde
En ze neemt alles mee
Alles wat de aarde nodig heeft
Voor dat wat in de aarde leeft
Ze voedingsstoffen afgeeft
En langzaam verder beweegt
En ze neemt alles mee
Uit de lucht en de wolken
Dat wat door de rivieren doet kolken
Uit zandgronden en grindhopen
Van planten-, dieren- en mensenvolken
En ze neemt alles mee
Alles wat we niet meer wilden
Al onze dingen en daden
Dat wat we niet meer deelden
En als zooi verklaarden
En ze neemt alles mee
Alles wat wij nergens kwijt konden
Ons in de weg stonden
Dat wat niet gevonden
Mocht worden
