Looking for water

To make kombucha, you need water, tea, sugar, starter liquid and a scoby. I am going to look for different water sources. The water from most of the fountains in Hallein is drinking water (but not the most well known one, with the bird on top).

 

The right place

Choosing a good place for the Bureau is complicated and easy at the same time. Since the majority of people won't be arriving for another 2 days there are so many inspiring rooms and corners to choose from. One of the rules during Schmiede is: first come, first serves. You can't reserve a space beforehand. This doesn't mean there is a run on the first day of Schmiede and people occupy the "best spaces": it means that when you arrive, you choose the space that suits you best, but you also keep in mind that a space you like might be better suited for other people. Think for yourself and for the community. Our first choice is a small room in the corner of what is called "Miner". We are told that we are welcome to install there but that since there aren't a lot of small spaces that can be closed off, it is a room that is perfect for people working with sound & recording. We decide to look for another option and find the perfect match, maybe even better than a separate room since it is an open space and has stairs going nowhere.

 

Sounds and textures

 

Schmiede and the saline

Schmiede has been organising a self assembling event for 23 years, a peer-to-peer yearly festival about cooperation and spending time together where artists from different fields and different corners of the world get together to experiment, teach, learn, create and network. It is the perfect setting for BurSe to present itself for the first time, even more since this year the theme is “Sloth”, focusing on slowness and its meaning. The open structure of Schmiede—providing space, a basic tech infrastructure, a supportive team and 200 curious and motivated practitioners—offers a breading ground for new ideas. The combination of time to research, try out, get input from others, take part in workshops and possibility to present work is something BurSE will undoubtedly benefit from since it is a project in development with a long term goal, searching for input from others and future possibilities/collaborations. BurSE will “plant seeds” in the Schmiede network and the network will “plant seeds” in BurSE, some of those seeds will already be sprouting and flowering during the final “workshow” on the last evening of the festival. 

 

The Schmiede festival lasts 10 days but since I am an artist in residence (AkademieAir), I will be there for three weeks and have access to the building before and after the event. I have been there before, twice, in 2014 and 2015 and I've been eager to come back. A lot has changed, especially since a big renovation last year, but the atmosphere is the same and it feels amazing to be in the building again, explore the different spaces, see the salt.  

On the road

Travelling from Amsterdam to Hallein with Albert (musician, composer, long time friend and fellow conspirator in slow endeavours) and the scoby army. They don't like movement so it wasn't easy to install them all comfortably but they seem to be doing ok. We stop at seemingly uninspiring places to make a visit to the dark side, but I am still inspired by all the wild edible plants that grow there.

 

BurSE at Schmiede

The Bureau of Slow Endeavours (BurSE) has existed in my mind for a long time and finally the moment has come to make it happen. Every year in September, around 250 artists, musicians, programmers, performers, writers and creative people from many other fields, get together for 10 days in a former salt refinery on a small island in the city of Hallein to get inspired, network, create, present, collaborate and exchange: Schmiede. This year's theme is Sloth, so slowness will be at the heart of the event. I am invited for a three week residency that will lead to a writing/book contribution.

The Bureau of Slow Endeavours (BurSE) is a new long-term artistic research project about Slow Ways of Being, focusing on collaboration, creation and education. It will bring a small army of scobys (symbiotic culture of bacteria and yeast) to Schmiede, not only to produce kombucha with natural water from the surroundings but also as muses and inspiration source (a scoby is a master of slowness) for the community of Smiths, as the participants of Schmiede are called.

Apart from creating a physical presence of the Bureau, BurSE will work on artistic projects, interventions, presentations and workshops involving walking, deep listening, storytelling, interspecies collaboration, slow media.

On September 8, BurSE will travel relatively slow—not by the most cherished travel method, which is walking, but by car— from Amsterdam to Hallein to get everything ready for the arrival of the Smiths. In the meantime, the scobys are multiplying and producing kombucha in a forest in the Netherlands.

 

 

Snail visit