Tentacles 6

interactive installation

mixed media

AADK Blanca, Spain, 2018

Human gear

"Kg Augenstern" have been exploring the world for years with their 'tentacles': extendable pieces of fiberglass that have allowed them to touch and extract the sounds of the places they have traveled through. Their longest intervention consisted of traveling by the boat in which they live, from Berlin to Arles, scratching the bottom of each bridge they passed and recording the sounds.

These tentacles have become a kind of prosthesis with which to generate subtle experiences that require attentive listening.

In Blanca, these tentacles acquire a new position and a new sense. They have chosen three of them joining each one in its base to a brass music box with a different percussive sound. Placed horizontally to the ground, they generate three intersecting circles, framed by salt from the Calblanque salt pans.

To operate, the piece requires three people holding a tentacle each and walking in circles around the box that makes the central axis.

This device displays an open choreography to the responses of each participant. It is a playful and meditative proposal that instigates a deep listening: connecting with our internal pulse and with the bodies that share the installation.

The experience suggests reflections about the cycles of life and our way of being in the world with others. 

(Elena Azzedín, AADK Spain)