Sauerland-Höhenflug: listening to the clouds on the forest sofa

The "Wolkenbank" is located directly on the Sauerland-Höhenflug, on a hill above Finnentrop-Faulebutter. Here, hikers are closer to the sky - and if they take a seat on the rocking forest sofa on the Sterlberg and look out into the blue, they can listen to the clouds. In a figurative sense: poems about and from clouds can be heard from a loudspeaker, the words reach the resting people at a pleasant volume in eight languages. The "Cloud Bank" is a sound sculpture by Cologne-based artist couple Katerina Kuznetcowa and Alexander Edisherov. The special listening experience, which was created for the Spiritual Summer 2022, can be enjoyed at this location until September 4.

This extraordinary art installation was conceived by the artist duo from Cologne, inspired by the motto of this year's Spiritual Summer "Heaven and Earth". "These are two spheres that are connected by clouds - poetically and physically," explained Alexander Edisherov at the vernissage and opening of the "Cloud Bank" last weekend. "Clouds are a mass that reflects our imagination, a projection surface for our wishes." And so he and Katerina Kuznetcowa selected poems about clouds in German, English, Turkish, Chinese, Ukrainian, Russian, Spanish and Italian, had them read by professional speakers in their native language and combined them into a sound sculpture. These sound in the original from the solar-powered loudspeaker; there is no translation on site for those listening. "Because the sound of the poems is itself a beautiful melody," say the creators of the art project. They include works by Rainer Maria Rilke, Ernst Scherenberg, Christina Rossetti, Antonino Anile, Alexander Pushkin and others.

Edisherov and Kuznetcowa chose the location quite deliberately. The forest sofa in Sauerland design on Sterlberg, near the Rademacher inn in Faulebutter, seemed like the ideal place to them. "This place on the Sauerland-Höhenflug has a very special energy all of its own," say the artists. "The forest sofa also has a luxury function: it rocks. The location is very important for enjoying poetry, because it is both a very strong art form and fragile at the same time." The project was then realized in cooperation with the partner institutions Netzwerk "Wege zum Leben. In Südwestfalen", the municipality of Finnentrop, Sauerland Rothaargebirge Nature Park, Sauerland Tourism and Gasthof Rademacher.

Katerina Kuznetcowa and Alexander Edisherov are primarily dedicated to art in public spaces. For them, the sound installation at Sauerland-Höhenflug is an invitation to a conversation, even a controversial one. "It's exciting for us when passers-by encounter the sound sculpture without knowing that it's a work of art." The reactions could be enthusiasm or incomprehension, both of which encourage communication.

The "Cloud Bank" will continue to resound at this location until September 4, 2022. After that, the sound sculpture will join the clouds and move on. For 2023 and 2024, other locations will be sought and found for the poetic project on the Sauerland-Höhenflug.

Contact for the press:
Anna Galon, Sauerland-Tourismus e.V.
Johannes-Hummel-Weg 1, 57392 Schmallenberg
Tel.: 02974-969850, e-mail: anna.galon@sauerland.com