Halle am Berghain transformed into a swamp. Jakob Kudsk Steensen
Jakob Kudsk Steensen’s new commissioned work, his first exhibition in Berlin, transforms the Halle am Berghain into a swamp, exploring its ecology and mythology.
The artist spent months researching the remaining wetlands of Berlin-Brandenburg, creating an archive of images using a method of macro photogrammetry in which he takes hundreds of images of a single object such as a leaf or patch of mud. Kudsk Steensen renders his findings in a 3D plan to create an immersive, absolute landscape using the video game platform Unreal Engine, a constant within his practice. Partnering with the Museum für Naturkunde Berlin, he also wove local specimens from their extensive archive into the visual and acoustic world of Berl-Berl. As songs were essential to ancient wetland culture and used to navigate the swamp and to share its mythologies, Kudsk Steensen collaborated with sound artist Matt McCorkle and singer Arca to create the world’s soundscape. Arca’s voice morphs with environmental sounds that include those made by local amphibians.
Berl-Berl is a song for the swamp, a place for the undefinable – morphing, liminal and mystical.
Berl-Berl mourns what is lost and embraces what is new.
Jakob Kudsk Steensen
