Requiem for a Dying Planet

Ritual performance by Christoph Both-Asmus

26 June 2015, 22h30 – 23h30, Gallery WHITECONCEPTS
as part of his solo show ‘Rivers and Trees‘

Slash and burn. The death knell of the rainforest  is sounded in the roar of the thousands of industrial chain saws. Teeming with hugely diverse life forms, the rainforests have been destroyed at such a speed over the last few decades, that the last remaining areas of primary rainforest are about to be lost forever, according to the famous botanist Francis Hallé. Artist Christoph Both-Asmus, who has been working closely with Francis Hallé on the project THE TREE WALKER, was so moved on hearing this that he was inspired to create his own poignant reponse with ‘Requiem for a Dying Planet.’

In ‘Requiem for a Dying Planet’ beautiful cut flowers are placed in a container of water which is then dug into the ground. Charcoal pieces are set alight and then placed on the ground around the base of the flowers. One by one the flowers succumb to the smouldering heat of the charcoal, wilt and collapse. For the performance of this ritual inside Whiteconcepts Both-Asmus will be using a special kind of vase and new arrangement of flowers. It can be viewed from outside the building, through the windows and door.

In contrast to the the high-speed and loud noise of the rainforest destruction, ‘Requiem for a Dying Planet’ is quiet and very slow, taking around 45 minutes for all of the flowers to collapse. This slowness creates what Both-Asmus calls ’empty moments’. Such ’empty moments’ allow the viewer to take time to experience and reflect and become more aware of what often gets missed in every day life: leaves rustling in the wind, a light breeze. When we directly experience the dying, burning flowers in front of us we can relate on a more emotional level with the otherwise unimaginable immensity of the far off burning and clearing of the rainforests.

Text by Kathrin Shephard
June 15, 2015