You think: we’ll overlook a landscape. Climb a structure, and once at the top, see beyond. The view stretches. We will feel at peace, start to see planes and lines, the interplay of sun and water. Reflect on how good it is to be out of the city. The city funnels the gaze into straight lines, it boxes your thoughts—doesn’t it? My thinking gets rigid there. Why let the mind shrivel if one could be looking out over forest and river? every day! I myself, I’’m going to find a cabin in the landscape. I’m inspired. With a garden and a food forest and a pig for a companion. And every day, I’ll look out over that river and forest. That forest!
No, says Johannes Bellinkx. This watchtower works in another way. The gaze goes downward. It’s a descending tower. We climb into the earth, the dark. We’ll be among insects and worms. We will hear—no, we feel—the earth tremble with life.
Between May 19 and 24, Johannes will be in Copenhagen, searching for the best spot to present Watchtower. He’ll also be making recordings of environmental sounds, which will later appear in a costomized soundscape. You can join Johannes for Watchtower in the summer of 2026, during Metropolis (not to be confused with the Metropolis festival in Rotterdam South—Johannes’s version takes place in, yes, Copenhagen).