In 2002, with Light imprisoned in the belly of the whale, Rebecca Horn for the first time created a work which incorporated passages of poetry as a sculptural element within a room-filling installation, employing music as an instrument of her artistic energy. Words and sentences are projected onto a black, reflective sheet of water, which is further inscribed by a long golden needle, to generate new, luminous characters that creep in a constantly rotating path across the dark walls, ceiling and floor. In a congenial collaboration, the New Zealand composer Hayden Chisholm has infused this pictorial space with sound, lending an acoustic dimension to the poetic narrative of the primeval event that is the central focus of this installation: the birth of the word as it charts its passage through the cosmos.

In Spiriti di Madreperla (2002) and Moon Mirror (2003) they have extended this collaboration. Hayden Chisholm’s music consummates the viewer’s sensual participation in Rebecca Horn’s most recent works. This publication comes in response to those who witnessed these works and wished for an opportunity to re-live the visual and acoustic experience. It consists of two audio CDs with the music to all three installations, Rebecca Horn’s poems, and a commentary by the composer. The installations and concert performances during exhibitions are depicted in color photographs. The introduction by Doris von Drathen describes the acoustic spaces, which both artists open up for us.

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