ERDE und ERDE

"ERDE und ERDE" is an art project in the forest under the direction of Marie-Pascale Gräbener. The project took place within "wechselweise".

In this project the participants* are inspired by the sounds and smells of the forest. With the experiences gained there, they go into an unplanned, creative game and create transient images and patterns.

The group meets regularly at a selected place in the forest.

They use exclusively the material that the forest provides: earth, wood, branches, stones, forest fruits, leaves. Subtle elements such as rain and fog, which are often perceived as disturbing factors, are accepted here as a welcome challenge.

The aim is to use the forest and, in connection with nature, to find a protected place and settle down there. This place, the basis of the community, can be both a starting point for artistic interventions in the forest and a retreat that provides orientation. The joint conquest of an unknown space creates a sense of connectedness: sounds, smells and the sensation of feeling should open up the experience of being sensitized to the natural environment and of developing creative processes and realizing artistic ideas from what the forest makes available. From the materials of the forest, pictures are created which, contrary to other habits, remain lying around until they dissolve again through the natural changes in the forest. As impulses for this kind of transient art, illustrated books and/or films about LandArt and art in public space can be used.
The common approach to the forest and its conditions, the retreat from the stimulus satiation of the urban environment, offers the participants the chance to come to rest, to concentrate completely on themselves and to draw from this the strength for an encounter in the community. Retreating into nature is no longer a matter of course for many people. To break away from everyday structures and habits opens up new possibilities of thinking and experiencing, also in contact with supposed strangers.

The different cultural approaches of the participants to the topic of nature are seen as a value of diversity and find their place in individual and group processes.