Audio, Installation
2003/2015

On the Abdijplein we hear voices, but we cannot see the speakers. The source of the voices is not immediately apparent. It cannot be the passers-by. Are the trees talking to each other? Are they whispering to us?

It gradually becomes clear that the voices are coming from a plane tree and two lime trees at the edge of the Abdijplein. Their branches touch one another. Sometimes we hear a single tree, sometimes all three at once. As observers we might feel that we are part of this communication but we might also feel like outsiders. Their words are mostly unintelligible. Sometimes there is giggling, which grows to roaring laughter, and then soft whispering again, almost without words. They are the voices of women.

The sound installation by Natasja Boezem raised many questions. "Where am I? Who is speaking? And to whom? What is my role in this?" The situation remained mysterious; there are no concrete answers. As in many of her works, with this sound installation Boezem aims to enter into a relationship with the environment, in this case the Abdijplein, the centre of power in Zeeland. In other locations where it has been installed, for example at the Hofvijver in front of the parliament building in The Hague, the relationship with the surroundings was different. The location supplies part of the material for the sound installation.