1 September – 29 January 2023
Free admission to the special exhibition!
Museum Koenig Bonn /Adenauerallee 160, 53113 Bonn, Germany
Tuesday to Sunday, 10:00 — 18:00 (Wednesday until 21:00)
currently changed opening hours:
Tuesday, 17.1.2023, 15:00 – 18:00
Wednesday, 18.1.2023, 12:00 – 18:00
Thursday, 19.1.2023, not open!
The sound installation Chundua – Frog Dreams is inspired by an Arhuaco tale about the inhabitants of the Sierra Nevada. It is said that they lie in their hammocks and imagine floating between the real and the spiritual world. Following this, the exhibition presents acoustic images of the Colombian rainforest in dream-like sequences in which materials are mixed and transformed through memory and imagination.
In the spring of 2022, Robin Minard travelled to the UNESCO Biosphere Reserve of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta in northern Colombia for a biological research expedition together with biologists from the University of Santa Marta. There he recorded the sounds of the rainforest, especially the great diversity of frogs that live in the area. For the indigenous Arhuaco people living there, frogs are associated with water, the source of life, and are therefore considered sacred animals.
Chundua, a mountainous region of the Sierra Nevada, is the heart of the world for the Arhuaco. In their tradition, life, wisdom and law originate here. They believe that all people need Chundua. But in the same way, Chundua needs people and their conscious treatment of the environment to maintain the balance on earth.
This exhibition is the first project of echoes – soundforum bonn of the Beethoven Foundation for Art and Culture of the Federal City of Bonn that combines artistic and scientific research. For this year’s annual theme of biodiversity, Bonn-based urban sound artist Robin Minard, who has been appointed for 2022, is working closely with the Herpetology Research Section at the Museum Koenig Bonn of the Leibniz Institute for the Analysis of Biodiversity Change (LIB).
Technical development & media art handling: Ludger Hennig
Technical assistance: Daniel Schulz
Exhibition wall construction: Markus Oppenländer
Museum team: Rainer Wollsiefen, Uwe Vaartjes
Graphic design: milchhof berlin
Curator and project management: Carsten Seiffarth
Photos: José Luis Pérez-Gonzáles, Hernan Darío Martínez Urrea,
Robin Minard, Carsten Seiffarth