Het Geheim van Horst
Horst Rickels
2006
Various species of woodpecker reveal their character through a spatial play of sounds.
Between the trees, drumming starts unexpectedly. Then silence, then ticks from another side. Is it a woodpecker? Or maybe even two or three?
That illusion is Het Geheim van Horst (Horst’s Secret), an installation by Horst Rickels. He selected five trees based on their acoustics and had them “played” by recordings of woodpeckers. Together, they create a spatial rhythm that syncs and fades.
Playing every fifteen minutes during the day, it invites you to lie down, close your eyes, and listen.
Het Geheim van Horst operates only between 8:00 a.m. and 7:00 p.m.
about the artist
Horst Rickels (DE) is a composer, performer, and sound artist. Originally trained as a piano builder and technician, he also studied music education, flute, and electronic composition at the conservatories of Kassel and The Hague. Since the late 1970s, he has created installations based on pneumatically generated sounds, bringing together visual, architectural, and acoustic elements in what he describes as “unstable situations.”