Swamp Song
“the sublime is not possible without slime”
Swamp Song engages wetland ecologies and mythopoetics to activate a radical queer imaginary, where monstrous beings and feral natures are held in tender reverence.
A long-term collective project drawing from participatory action research and sensory ethnography, it explores embodied processes and prefigurative strategy through storytelling, ritual, and accessible art initiatives.
Project Origins
Cultivating a relationship with local histories and ecologies has always been part of my practice. It’s foundational to how I move through the world and orient myself in new places. When I moved to Berlin 10 years ago, I immersed myself in researching the history of the land, beyond the broad strokes of the 20th century. The deeper I went, the more I noticed the swamp seemed to keep bubbling out of the marshy ground and seeping into Berlin’s narrative.
From 9th century Slavic settlement, through the era of Roman conquest and Christianisation, into the Third Reich, and beyond - I could see how the swamp had shaped, and been shaped by, the city’s history in significant and intriguing ways.
And even in the present day, as a city in a state of near-permanent instability, a place where excesses and repressed desires often appear on the surface, Berlin’s shifting, murky character seemed to continually evoke the swamp. After awhile, I began to see the swamp as some kind of ecospiritual presence, Berlin’s genius loci,
Already captivated by the local context, I continued researching broader swamp histories and associations. Endless material and conceptual links emerged:
bog burials, ritual offerings, and animist beliefs of wetlands as portals the Otherworld.
correlations between wetland ecologies and marginalised bodies and beings — feminised, racialised, queer, mad, filthy, fugitive, feral — the swamp as an othered landscape offering refuge for persecuted and vulnerable forms of life.
swamp as symbol of the repressed unconscious — what is monstrous, abject, chaotic and unintelligible, lying just beneath the surface of the rational mind.
Swamp - ‘The Place To Be’
What started as intuitive curiosity is now a confirmed obsession. Just as I once answered Berlin’s call, which resulted in a long-term love affair with the city, I’ve been enchanted by the siren song of the swamp, and I have no interest in breaking its spell.
Swamp Song at the Palace Residency 2024
In mid-2024, I was invited to lead Swamp Song as a feature project at the Palace Residency in Gorzanów, Poland. Embracing the opportunity to explore collaborative potentials and site-specific development, the project was facilitated as an open process to empower individual and collective research. The conceptual and methodological framing encouraged experimentation and exchange, with a focus on supporting diverse inputs and fluid development towards an unknown end beyond the process itself. Through meetings, rituals, methodological exploration, and creative play, Swamp Song was brought to life by a wildly talented group of multidisciplinary collaborators, emerging as an immersive performance during the final showcase weekend.