Feldblende (Die Augen) - SOPHIE INNMANN

2025 | Full HD video, Duration: 18:37 min.

Exhibition view open studio BBK Brandenburg, Libken e.V., 2025.

The residency in Libken was entitled “into the fields”. I took this at its word and went on extensive forays through the landscape shaped by the Ice Age. Always with me: binoculars, camera and audio recorder. In addition to the wildlife, in particular the abundance of bird species, the so-called “Sölle” immediately aroused my interest. Sölle are indentations in the ground formed by blocks of ice that have been covered with sediment. They are popularly known as “eyes”. From then on, I used my binoculars to observe the goings-on in and around the holes, as well as the moon and the starry night sky with passing satellites and the International Space Station (ISS).

Just as we observe stars in the night sky through a telescope and thus see into times gone by, as the light from the stars took thousands of years to reach the earth, so the Sölle are the eyes into a time thousands of years ago on our earth. Today they are a habitat for numerous species and a refuge for game, if they want to escape the field of vision of the hunters who let their eyes roam over the fields through binoculars. I finally made these connections visible in the video installation Feldblende (Die Augen).

My thanks go to the operators and organizers of Libken and the residency, who laid the foundations for this intensive time with their energy, commitment and expertise, as well as to my flatmate and fellow artists in Libken for this wonderful, unforgettable and unique time.