Abendspaziergang 2024

I wrote and recorded three groups of unrhymed sonnetts (in German) for specific places in the city of Bielefeld. 

The recorded sonetts were played as a loop at the places they were written for during the 2024 edition of the Abendspaziergang, an art festival in the city of Bielefeld organised by Vera Brüggemann and Christine Gensheimer from Artists Unlimited. 

The annual Abendspaziergang invites the public to explore niche and offbeat places in the city of Bielefeld for a few evenings in August by using these places as settings for art installations - mostly for audio and video works, but also sculpture. There's also a concert every evening to start off the night. 

You can listen to my recordings of the sonetts on the soundcloud-page of Abendspaziergang.

Thanks to everybody who helped with this project: Vera Brüggemann and Christine Gensheimer for the curation and organisation, Ralf Schipke from KHM sound studio for the recording, Johannes Hoffmann for the sound mixing, Timo Katz for the installation on site, Maike Lippelt for general support and Fabian Thürhoff for the photographic documentation.

Here are the sonetts plus a few photos of the three locations: 

 

The first location: the "Bierpavillon" (i.e. a kind of public gazebo where people like to drink beer, among other things) at the corner of Hermannstraße and Turnerstraße in the city center of Bielefeld during the day. Photo: Christine Gensheimer
Abendspaziergang visitors listening to the sonett loop. Photo: Fabian Thürhoff
The speaker installed in the ceiling of the gazebo for the duration of the Abendspaziergang. Photo: Maike Lippelt
Crowd of Abendspaziergang visitors during one of the guided tours at the "Bierpavillon". Photo: Fabian Thürhoff
The second location: view of the "Sternzeichenhäuser" (zodiac sign houses) during the day. These apartment buildings feature depicitons of all the zodiac signs on their facade, which is alreday cute, but as an added bonus, these signs actually glow during the night - at least they did, when I first encountered them. They've been subsequently shut off and apparently now switched on again =).
Abendspaziergang visitor listening to the loop installed in a tree opposite from the apartment block during the event. Photo: Fabian Thürhoff
Speaker installed in a nearby tree for the duration of the Abendspaziergang. Photo: Maike Lippelt
The third location: A "Sitzrondell" (a circular seating area) in a small park of the Bielefeld-Mitte hospital during the day. Photo: Christine Gensheimer
Abendspaziergang visitors listening to the sound installion during the event. Photo: Fabian Thürhoff
A view of the speaker installed in the seating area for the duration of the event. Photo: Maike Lippelt
View of the main building of the Bielefeld-Mitte hospital, as seen from the "Sitzrondell".