Powerless Flight is a set of two towers, so cal­l­ed ​‘aeo­li­an harps’, fit­ted with strings that are play­ed by the wind. These sculp­tu­res have a direct rela­ti­ons­hip to the wea­ther and cli­ma­te con­di­ti­ons of the monas­tery gar­den. With this work, American-born and Estonia-based artist John Grzinich aims to reo­rient our per­cep­ti­on toward the other than human world. Powerless Flight was con­cei­ved as a res­pon­se to the glo­bal pan­de­mic events of spring 2020, whe­re a ​‘return of natu­re’ was wit­nes­sed along with his­to­ric waves of silen­ce that were regis­tered due to dra­ma­tic drops in traf­fic noi­se. Grzinich wants to give a voi­ce to the­se often unseen and unheard for­ces of natu­re, so we can lis­ten to it and hear what the world is tel­ling us. In the tit­le, ​‘power­less’ is not refer­ring to a sen­se of hel­ples­s­ness. Instead it means embra­cing the cha­os of the cos­mos, the world beyond the ​‘anthro­pos’ sha­ped by geop­hy­si­cal for­ces like vol­ca­noes, earth­qua­kes, wind and rain.

Good to know: This instal­la­ti­on func­ti­ons with wind. If the­re is no or litt­le wind, the work will not sound, or will sound only slightly. In that case, you can per­haps wait a bit or come back at ano­ther time.