Contained Memories

Sound installation. Poplar tree trunk, poplar bark, exposed aggregate concrete block, fired bricks, steel objects, and a 9.36-minute narrated soundscape. 

All objects and sounds were gathered around 300 kilometres southeast of The Hague, in western Germany. There, at the foothills of the Eifel, lies a small village. On its outskirts, in a green valley, stands a lone house. Beside the house, and further up the valley, a small river winds its way through the landscape. After five broad bends upstream, twenty poplar trees rise along its banks. Having lived long lives, they are now largely hollow, their trunks intertwined. Those trees are home to four different kinds of bats, all of which will soon have to find new shelter. In the aftermath of the Ahr Valley flood of 2021, this valley has been designated as the site of a large dam project. The development will radically transform this nature conservation area and challenge existing paradigms of protection. As part of the project, all twenty poplars will be felled.

The work was exhibited as part of the Context Programme of REWIRE Festival in The Hague and later documented with a subtitled video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0wR5IdVKZLk

Collaborators: Leonard von Brenndorff, Valentin Idel