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

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

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 connected by clouds - poetically and physically," Alexander Edisherov inferred last weekend at the vernissage and opening of the "Cloud Bank". "Clouds are a mass that reflects our imagination, a projection surface for our desires." And so he and Katerina Kuznetcova selected poems about clouds in German, English, Turkish, Chinese, Ukrainian, Russian, Spanish and Italian, had them read by professional speakers in their native languages and assembled 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. Included are works by Rainer Maria Rilke, Ernst Scherenberg, Christina Rossetti, Antonino Anile, Alexander Pushkin and others.

Edisherov and Kuznetcowa chose the location quite deliberately. The Sauerland-designed forest sofa on the Sterlberg, near the Rademacher Inn in Faulebutter, seemed like the ideal place to them. "This place on the Sauerland-Höhenflug has a very special energetic quality in itself," the artists think. "The forest sofa has another luxury function: it rocks. For the enjoyment of poetry, the place is very important, because it is at the same time a very strong art form, but also fragile." The project was then realized in cooperation between the partner institutions network "Wege zum Leben. In Südwestfalen", the municipality of Finnentrop, the Sauerland Rothaargebirge Nature Park, Sauerland Tourism and Gasthof Rademacher.

Katerina Kuznetcowa and Alexander Edisherov devote themselves primarily to art in public spaces. For them, the sound installation at the Sauerland-Höhenflug is an invitation to talk, even controversially. "What's exciting for us is 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 make like the clouds and move on. For the years 2023 and 2024, other locations on the Sauerland-Höhenflug will be sought and found for the poetic project.

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