In spring, the sap rises in trees. Place the round end of a stethoscope on a trunk, and you’ll hear a rustling: a heartbeat without a thump.
From birch, linden, and maple, you can drink the sap if you carefully break off a branch or make a hole in the trunk. The tree allows you to tap in, to connect to the flow.
Now, as autumn approaches, the trees fall silent. Yet tapping in to nature can still be done. If not the trees, then the land itself rustles, hums, and hisses.
With Soundings, Robert Wilson†, Theun Mosk, Andreas Oskar Hirsch and Rita Hoofwijk created a series of installations in the landscape of Groningen. It’s a work with stethoscope-like qualities, helping the audience tap into the inner rumbling of the Groningen land. Soundings premieres on September 19 at the Groninger Museum.