zandbank



is a platform for writing from and on art. We facilitate the production and dissemination of research and writing, both contemporary and archival. We believe in slow reflection, in sustainable criticism, and the power of extensive contemplations and considerations - and wish to move away from "actuality" and rushed writings. We are rooted in Grunnen [Groningen], Netherlands and founded by Dinnis van Dijken & Michiel Teeuw in 2024.

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part of SIGN 1988-2018 (WIP)

Bog Shaped Stories

Ingeborg Entrop - 2017


Author's note: Bog Shaped Stories is a slowly but steadily growing overview of works. The text was shared with SIGN in 2017, as a portfolio narrative, to inform discussions with SIGN/CBK regarding potential participation in a landscape-related project. These discussions ultimately led to my contribution to Het verticale landschap/The Vertical Landscape in 2018, and later that same year, to an exhibition at SIGN entitled Bog Time Stories, The 2017 text Bog Shaped Stories served as a "score" for the development of that exhibition. The works in the chapters Bog Book, Tracing Walfridus and Suur tamm were made possible by financial support from the Mondriaan Fund.



0

Once upon a time, as a natural scientist, I was accustomed to keeping as much distance as possible between nature and myself for the sake of objectivity. But something seemed to be missing. Now, as an artist, I have much more freedom to incorporate my own position in relation to nature into my work. In fact, it has become the central theme of my artistic practice: what is place, what does it mean to be somewhere? Recent events in my surroundings resulting from exploitation of the landscape made these questions even more urgent. Safe, solid ground is not a given.

1

A few years ago I started to explore my own surroundings more closely by means of field recordings. Using the collected material I composed an audio piece that represents the essence of a typical contemporary agricultural landscape in the Netherlands. The composition is inspired by the most famous piece of music in Western cultural history that imitates the sounds of nature: Vivaldi's Four Seasons.

I - II - III - IV, sound piece in 4 parts, approx. 10 min / part, 2014/2015, released in various formats:

Een zaak van verknipte momenten, lie-down concert, 2015, Paterswolde IV/I, season-dependent audio installation, 2015, Symposion 2015, Gorinchem
Ontginder, audio installation, Investigations V, 2016, Assen CD with publication, to be released in 2017

2

Around the same time I made field recordings in the landscape around me, I learned that a thick layer of raised bog had once covered the area. I wondered how that landscape must have sounded like back then. Since I can't travel through time, I wanted to go to a place where raised bogs are still intact, untouched since the last ice age, to make field recordings there. What I didn't know at that time was that I was on my way to the most beautiful landscape I have ever seen. So beautiful that I would like to carry it with me for ever.

Bog Book, appearing as a series:

Bog Book #00, observation, winter 2016, photo featured in catalogues of Prospects & Concepts 2017 and Alternatieve Boekenweek/Alternative Book Week 2017 Bog Book #01, textile & yarn, 2017, Prospects & Concepts, Rotterdam Bog Book #02, Flexa colour samples, 2017

3

During that same period I also got to know about Walfridus of Bedum, a pious gentleman who lived about 1000 years ago and who is said to have been the first to cultivate the raised bogs north of Groningen. It is also said of him that when a good friend accompanied him during a walk to church on a cold winter day, the friend's feet stayed nice and warm because he placed them in Walfridus's footsteps. That seemed like a pleasant prospect for my trips to the raised bogs, so I decided to follow in Walfridus's footsteps.

Tracing Walfridus, in serie verschijnend:

Tracing Walfridus #00, recording sessions, winter/spring/summer/autumn 2016, photo series in proceedings Invisible Places 2017

While I was in the land of the raised bogs, I discovered an ancient type of folk song there. These songs were being sung as far back as 1000 years ago, so during the same period when Walfridus lived. I wondered if these ancient melodies could still tell me something about those bygone times. What followed was a sonic journey from the Ice Age all the way to the Anthropocene.

Tracing Walfridus #01, site-specific audio installation with objects, approx. 3 min (loop), 2016, Kunst om de Vijvers, Veendam

But such a geological timescale is beyond any imagination. Hence, a sonic journey on a more human scale.

Tracing Walfridus #02, audio installation including a text based on the Walfridus legend, approx. 7 min 30 sec (loop), 2017, Prospects & Concepts, Rotterdam

4

No good story is complete without an oak tree. Fortunately, there were many magnificent, solitary oaks in the land of the raised bogs, standing as silent witnesses to times gone by. I wonder what they have seen over the past centuries. After all, history is very much alive, especially in the land of the raised bogs.

Suur tamm, appearing as a series:

Suur tamm #00, observation, summer 2016 Suur tamm #01, photo series, B0-poster, 2017, Prospects & Concepts, Rotterdam




(to be continued)