THE RICE FIELDS IN BALI: 🌾🍚 It is not often I find myself standing in a rice field in the middle of Indonesia. It wasn’t planned to happen at this point, but as life goes with full-time travel, and creating music and sound as I immersive myself in the local cultures, this is exactly where I found myself - standing in the middle of a rice field in Bali.

My partner and I (@ceecestravel) are on our way to India, having just finished “The Recycling Ball Project” in Skopje, North Macedonia. A project that I have been putting together for many years. Which finally came to life, with the collaboration of many people. Link in Bio 🧑‍💻

Being able to stand there in the middle of the rice field, was a network of dots that all came together. I found my “musical instruments” in a local shop, on the side street next to our accommodation. 🏡 There I stood speaking to the local store owner, who was very confused as to why I wanted the two brushes (generally used for cleaning) 😅. Trying to explain that they have multiple purposes in life, not just to clean. Finally, we agreed on a price and I made off with my new sound tools. 🧹♻️

Next was seeking permission from our landlord to gently and without causing harm, walk through his beautiful rice fields. I have been wanting to see the rice fields since my late teens, and suddenly I was really there, right in front of them. 🌾 With a smile I was given permission for me and Cee to venture into the fields, I didn’t have a plan, I simply stood there, embracing the environment, waiting for the moment to find me, listening for the sound to come. And it did. 🌿🌺 The wind blowing through the rice, the water trickling through the soil, the kites soaring above, the dogs barking and the scooters hooting, I was in Indonesia - and so the sound came 🌾🎶

Film by @ceecestravel

Made possible by Kunststiftung NRW

SONIC STORIES, NAIROBI KENYA:

Does an abandoned building still make a sound if nothing is in it? The answer is....yes.

The following film showcases snippets from a two-day workshop in an Abandoned Car Showroom.

The theme relates to the artistic approach that the "space" itself - its foundation, floor, walls and materials, with no additional musical instruments - becomes a sounding instrument—or rather: an interaction partner.

The Workshop aligns alongside the interface of musical sound, movement, performative actions and social sculpture.

We explore and evolve in and with the spaces as one equal group beyond mainstream educational hierarchies.

Filmed and Documentation by Ceeces Travel and Lifestyle.

SPACE AS AN INSTRUMENT

About the Artistic Concept:

This is a communicative performance of Sound and Movement between, the Artist Holger Maik Mertin, and the building itself.

The building in its structure, materials, emptiness and foundation, is the core base for the alignment where materials meet man, and how together they can create sound and movement where often one does not expect to find.

Together Holger Maik Mertin and the attending participants wander through different areas and floors of the Old Hospital building.

Tools for the multidisciplinary performance are the floor, the glass windows, and the sunbeams that cast light, and shadow and thus create imagery and emotion. Paired with the dust, dirt, water and brick on the surface of the floors.

Holger Maik Mertin Citation “I don’t alter the settings of the space, for my performance. I respect the building in its current state and the people who run and work in it, and will treat all as such.”

Space As An Instrument was created through a one-month artistic research in different rooms and areas in the Old Christiaan Barnard Hospital. The project is about observing and working with the environment of the Old Hospital: with its architecture and its semantic structure. It is about the history of the rooms and also about what this place could be like in the (near) future.

Performed and recorded in the emptied “Old Christiaan Barnard Hospital”

Capetown - South Africa

Film and Documentation of the project by Cecilia Martens (@ceecestravel)

The Performance took place during Holgers Maik Mertin's time as an Artist in Residency at AVA - Association for Visual Arts

Contributors: Mirjam Asmal, Stefan Naudé, Zweli Ntuli, Holger Maik Mertin, Volker Kuhl and further AVA members.

Holger Maik Mertin's Artistic Residency in South Africa 2022 was funded by Kunststiftung NRW