See me

Invisible currents, past stories and sounds are at the centre of the work See me by the musician and composer Anushka Chkheidze. The first part of her two-part sound installation leads into the cellar vaults of the Theological Faculty Paderborn and directly refers to its historical connection to the Pader: in the 16th century, an elaborate pumping system – the so-called water art – was developed to supply the upper town with water from the Pader. The Jesuits also channelled the water to their monastery, today’s Theological Faculty. When they were denied access to the river water, they built their own well to the subterranean watercourse of the Pader beneath the town.

For this cellar, the musician has composed a kind of sound  portrait of the river that aims to make the invisible veins of the Pader perceptible. For this, she worked with sound recordings of the Pader, choir singing from the faculty and other acoustic elements.

In the second part of the work – in the rose garden of the park of Schloß Neuhaus, where the Pader meets the Lippe – different sounds meet, which have accompanied the river since its emergence in the source’s area: organ music from the cathedral in the city centre, the sound of water, wind and bird calls are combined in the artist’s melodic composition to form an open, living soundscape.