Performance (2024)

At the vernissage of Echoes of Promised Safety, a fashion installation by Berlin-based designer Elodie Carstensen, Echo Poems led its audience in rings around the Großer Wasserspeichern, juxtaposing poetry reading against the installation. In this space with a 20-second echo, all sounds were accompanied by the sound of dripping water from Carstensen’s ice dyeing garments. 

As with much of my poetry, the selected works for this reading transpose stories of lived experience into surreality and fantasy, positioning the process of queering and transitioning as neo-mythology. In the concentric rings of the Großer Wasserspeicher, voice boomed with cavernous reverb, uplifting the uncanny narration beyond the identifiably human.

About Echoes of Promised Safety:

“Elodie Carstensen's latest collection "ABSENCE OF PROMISED SAFETY" begins its silent narrative in the extraordinary ambience of the Great Water Reservoir as the official 'S2R' event during Berlin Fashion Week. Art and fashion are woven into a multi-sensory journey that explores the beauty of healing.

The over 1000 square meter Great Water Reservoir draws visitors into its atmospheric labyrinth.

Using their signature ice-dyeing technique, the pristine fabric of the collection's first garments transforms and evolves into new, unexpected creations. 12 artists - musicians, instrumentalists and poets - enrich the experience with their performances, enhanced by the venue's exceptional acoustics.”