Gratitude - Watering the Woodlands / het woud water geven. 2017

For the outdoor exhibition Disruption: Remapping Nature at the the Lustwarande, I had designed a garden in and around a dome-shaped greenhouse, inspired by both druidic ritual gatherings and the permaculture movement. Read all about it: here. Nearing the end of the season, I wanted to give thanks to the woodlands by tuning-in and giving water to the forest in a walking ceremony. During this silent (non-speaking) barefoot meditation we connected deeply to all the greens, branches, trunks, smells, sounds and particularities of our surroundings while a free-range audience wandered around the woods too and could engage is small interactive nonverbal dialogues with the performers. In the video below you can see the team prepare, after which they were silent for 2 hours doing their work. At the end they close with a vocal celebration.

From a press-coverage: 'Met zijn meditatieve performance Gratitude - Het Woud Water Geven, bracht Griepink mensen in diepe vervoering en zelfs tot tranen geroerd, temeer door de hypnotiserende harp-compositie van Maia Lyon Daw.'



 


Credits
Date - 02.09.2017
Concept: Jasper Griepink
Performers: Maia Lyon Daw, Caroline Lindo, Marleen van Wijk & Jasper Griepink
Custom instruments and live harp: Maia Lyon Daw
Costumes: Alexandra Hageman & Jasper Griepink
Photos: Gert-Jan van Rooij, Alex Harris
Video: Sookoon Ang + Alex Harris (camera), Dorothee Meddens (edit)

Thank you
Lustwarande -- Platform for Contemporary Sculpture | Sponsors of Lustwarande
CBK Rotterdam and Mondriaan Fund for supporting in my research leading up to this.
And the woodlands. Thank you!