Visitors at Naturkundemuseum Berlin explore the ODER HIVE installation with sounds from the Oder River. © Anne Freitag/Berlin Science Week
On the Berlin Science Week Campus at Naturkundemuseum Berlin the ODER HIVE came to life with a large, vibrating and sounding object that invited visitors to feel the 'liveliness' of the Oder. "With our object, we want to enable the public to immerse themselves in the perception of non-human life forms, to change their perspective and thus develop more empathy," explains FrauVonDa's Nicolas Wiese. Researchers from the Special Investigation Programme on the Environmental Disaster in the Oder River (ODER~SO), coordinated at IGB, provided visitors to the exhibition with comprehensive information about the river and the causes and consequences of the fish kill in 2022, so that here too sensory perceptions and facts were brought together.
ODER HIVE: The Oder as a connecting river
In their performance on 10 November in the Säälchen am Holzmarkt, FrauVonDa artists Claudia van Hasselt and Nicolas Wiese also made the Oder perceptible in a sensual, associative way: with their sound compositions in combination with free improvisations by the ensemble and compositions by Polish composer Wojtek Blecharz. "Our aim is to appeal equally to the senses and the mind, so that the audience can experience the Oder as a unifying body of water - as a river community and a unique habitat for people, animals and plants," explains Claudia van Hasselt. She is convinced that this is the only way to create a sense of community and responsibility.
© Angelina Tittmann/IGB
IGB expert Sonja Jähnig picked up on this understanding of community in her introductory remarks. She explained that rivers are highly dynamic systems that they are home to a wide variety of organisms. Not only are these organisms adapted to their respective habitats in fascinating ways, but they also interact with each other in ways, that shape the underwater communities. For example, bitterlings and freshwater mussels dependent on each other for reproduction. "In nature, everything is interconnected: If one life stage is disturbed, it can affect a population; if one species disappears, it can have long-term consequences for the entire ecosystem." It is therefore difficult to predict whether an ecosystem like the Oder can fully recover once it has been damaged.
The Polish environmental ethicist Hanna Schudy enriched the ensuing discussion with her cross-border perspective and categorised the various political and civil society challenges on both sides of the river. For many in the audience, the performance was a stimulus to reflect on their own relationship with the Oder. One visitor commented enthusiastically afterwards: "That was the best thing I've seen all week!"
Upcoming: Events in December and January
On 14 December, the ODER HIVE programme will travel across borders in the truest sense of the word on the cultural train from Berlin to Wrocław. On board are FrauVonDa// and IGB expert Christian Wolter, who has been researching the Oder for almost three decades and knows its fish communities like no other.
Soundscapes, visual poetry, scientific lectures and open discussions also await the audience at the ODER HIVE performance and installation on 11 and 12 January 2025 at the Villa Elisabeth in Berlin. In addition to new elements, the vibrating object will be used to make the river and its creatures a part of your own world of experience.
Read the complete IGB report on Berlin Science Week here.
