hutan (forest)

A durational performative sound installation

Forests are essential for humans and other living creatures and today have both a political and economic as well as a metaphorical and emotional significance. But what does the complex sound of a forest reveal about our human existence? Can the chorus of an infinite natural sonic landscape be part of our collective physical memory?

During an excursion in August 2023, Katia Engel and Ari Ersandi with their artistic team spent 24 hours recording the sounds of one of the few remaining primary forests in the world, the Rungan in Central Kalimantan (Indonesian Borneo). They selected fragments from this soundscape and assembled them into “Hutan” – an immersive, eight-hour performative sound installation.

Three dancers give this soundscape a very unique physicality in directly addressing the psychological and physical effects of the sounds they experience. And they make the experience of their physical hearing visible. Gradually, new stories emerge in front of the audience, fed less by actions and myths than by energies and structures.

In this sense, “Hutan” unfolds an intimate perceptual investigation – a space that opens a mode of listening for the audience and with that a mind to other ways of being. It invites the audience to move around freely and linger. And to let the dynamics of listening, rooted in each individual, grow from a personal, intimate matter into a social and ethical one. Does listening to non-human rhythms and frequencies lead to changes in our self-understanding as humans in the world?

Publication STREAM LIVE ART WRITING

work-in-progress Wälder-Hutan:  31 March-1 April 2023,  Kunstquartier Bethanien Berlin

22, 23 June 2024, Komunitas Salihara Jakarta

7 July 2024, Performa Artjog Yogyakarta