The Whisper of the Sea

An interactive, performative installation at the intersection between art, dance, music, and lighting design.

The Whisper of the Sea is an artistic vision that local visitors – hereafter called the participants – can actively interact with an installation about climate change in the global world.

Rather than pursuing a macro-political agenda, this project explores the possibilities of micro-political relations. How can the unpredictable consequences of climate change be understood so that it resonates in the individual person?

The whisper of the sea consists of two different interactive performative installations that have drawn inspiration from indigenous peoples from Greenland, Brazil and Scandinavia respectively.

In three different exhibition spaces, the interactive performative installations examine the melting ice sheet, the drought and the flood, some of the current dialogues on the Anthropocene, and in the understanding between man and the planet.

Room 1: Is a meditative room. It shows a dialogue between the iceberg and man. Inspiration from Greenland.

Room 2: Is a cyclical room that shows a cohesion between man and the wave. Inspiration from the novel by Virginia Woolf 'The Waves'.

Prior to this project, we had a long research and exchange with Inuit, Kuikuro and Sami and their cultural approach to ecology, multinaturalism and animism. Our intention is to dispel cultural myths about climate by engaging the participants to improvise, dance, listen and visualize in an immersive installation. The participants will sense the space, take an active action and thereby transform the space into something new. These spatial transformations will be effected by the influence of the substrate, humidity, temperature, video projections and light. They will experience the ground cracking under their feet and the flood becoming present in words when, for example, they walk on a rocking surface, or otherwise actively relate to the space via words and movements.

During the exhibition period, we use professional dancers to perform choreographies in the installations and interact with the participants.

The Whisper of the Sea is an art activist project that can help increase awareness and engagement in the highly topical climate debate. We believe that climate change should not only be understood. It must be felt, through a sensory experience. We want to make it very concrete for the participants, because it is their own interaction with the installation that controls the experience and how it unfolds. The goal is for the participants to find a new and more poetic platform that can develop dialogues about climate change.

Dancers: Thomas Johansen, Alexander-Montgomery Andersen, Camilla Spidsøe and Liv Mikaela Sanz.

Behind the installation: Choreographer and concept: Birgitte Bauer-Nilsen Visual artist: Marianne Grønnow Lighting design: Jesper Kongshaug Composers: Carsten Dahl and Nils Henrik Asheim.

The Whisper of the Sea on Tour

• The Danish Art Workshops, Copenhagen, June 2024

• ILLU, Ilulissat, October 2024

• Barents Dance Festivall, November 2024

Support

The project has been realised with support from Augustinus Foundation, Nordic Ministry Counsel, Knud Højgaard Foundation, Nordic Culture Point, Nordic Culture Fund, Danish Arts Foundation, William Demant Foundation.