How much is the Fish?

2023 | MS Artville, MS Dockville

Interactive Installation

The installation addresses our compulsion for control, the responsibility we bear through interfering with the natural cycle, the remnants of our connection to nature, and the ambivalence of compassion. We live in a time where floods, droughts, epidemics, and the extinction of biodiversity increasingly define our reality, while we tirelessly fertilize crops with toxic substances and fatten livestock in windowless cages.

We enter a dark room with artificial light, walk on bright desert sand, and hear our spoken words distorted as they travel through the space. On a pedestal in the center is an aquarium, within an aquarium, within an aquarium, in which a lone fish swims in circles. The loud, droning gurgling of the pumps acoustically draws us into the tank—to the fish. Who is in the tank?
Various water circuits are available using pumps, hoses, connectors, distributors, and switches. The amount of water always remains the same – but its distribution across the different levels is controllable by the guests. They decide which direction the water flows, holding the switches and determining the future between running dry and overflowing.

Scattered around the festival grounds are small slips of paper with questions and a mobile phone number; an iPhone lies in the pool, ringing occasionally and answering automatically. Loud and filling the room, we hear a stranger with a personal story or an answer to one of the questions.

Mit: Andreas Szczurowski

MaterialHydrophone, desert sand, camera, screen, black light, aquariums, water, fighting koi, pumps, hoses, phone, sound system