ECHO was born as a reaction to the landscape and the experience of inhabiting it. It is the result of an artistic residency carried out in October 2023 in the North Rhine-Westphalia region, for the Regionale 2025 Bergisches RheinLandRegionale is a regional development program of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia that promotes strategic projects in the Bergisches Rheinland (infrastructure, landscape, culture, and economy). Its objective is to strengthen regional identity, quality of life, and the attractiveness of the territory.
During this stay, we were deeply moved by the beauty of its natural surroundings—its forests, its reservoirs, the vastness of the sky. A fragile beauty that made us acutely aware of its importance. Water, the mother of all resources, emerges here as the central element of the project: a life-giving presence that demands intelligence, respect, and responsibility in its management.
ECHO is a response to the urgent need to rethink our relationship with the environment. The work proposes a pause: a moment of calm observation, but one that may also be unsettling. This project depends on a perfect balance between nature—the land—and human intervention—the dam. It offers a contemplative experience of the landscape's beauty while appreciating its vulnerability, reminding us of the delicate balance we maintain with the environment.
TERRITORY
This area features a landscape highly representative of the region. Small clusters of houses are surrounded by a large forest typical of the area.
Global warming has visibly altered this environment. Droughts have damaged water and forest resources; the Norway spruce, weakened by the heat and lack of water, is being devastated by the Norway spruce beetle, leaving barren areas. Visually, this pathology, resulting from climate change, helps to highlight the severity of the problem.
At the same time, the extreme weather has caused torrential rains. In July of 2021A series of storms caused a historic disaster in the region, with fatalities, flooded villages and destroyed crops.
Grove of red spruce devastated by the wood beetle.
Floods in Hagen, photo by Klaus Bärwinkel, July 2021
CONTEXT
In this complex context, we situated the installation on the Agger reservoir dam, fed by the Agger, Genkel, and Rengse rivers. This civil engineering structure is 225 meters long and reaches a maximum height of 45 meters, of which only 10 meters rise above the water's surface on the reservoir side. We chose this location for its open character and the way it allows us to appreciate the surrounding landscape. This natural plaza is unique because of the immense body of water at its base—a fitting setting for an intervention that can be viewed from several kilometers away.
Dam wall before the intervention
DESIGN
Formally, the piece is constructed from reflection. An echo, understood as the return of a sound wave after striking a distant surface, can only exist if there is something to reflect it onto. The proposal translates this idea to the visual plane: the dam's retaining wall becomes the support for a large-scale work that paints the water, taking advantage of its reflective properties. We sought a simple, direct gesture, legible from a great distance. To achieve this, we used maximum contrast and simplicity—clean typography and white on the raw material—so that the word can be clearly read from afar.
PERMANENT BALANCE
The intervention requires constant balance. The line of symmetry must remain stable for the message to be revealed; and it is on this imaginary line that the poetic tension of the work is concentrated. The installation reacts to the fluctuations in the reservoir's water level: it disappears when the water rises and is interrupted when it falls. It is a living, changing piece, visible or unintelligible depending on the intensity of the rain; a witness to the times in which we live, a live visualization of our relationship with the environment.
ECHO functions both as an image and as a question. It reflects back to us the impact of our actions and invites us to consider the echo we produce in the world we inhabit. The landscape we take for granted in our daily routine reappears under a renewed gaze. The work proposes re-establishing a connection: to approach again, with humility, a territory that is not only our surroundings, but our home.
Image taken during the execution, May 2025
+ INFO
+ Intervention of approximately 1.300 m²
+ Carried out within the framework of the Regionale 2025 Bergisches RheinLand
+ With support from Aggervervand y Proud to Print GmbH
Our sincerest thanks to Dr. Reimar Molitor for believing in the power of ideas and betting on them, however impossible they may seem.
+ Thanks to the entire Regionale 2025 team: Reimar Molitor, Thomas Kemme, Sascha Gebhardt, Eva Weber, Vanessa Müller and Stephan Ullmann
+ Thanks to the Aggerverband team: Christoph Schmitz, Helge Klopch, Wim Dissevelt, Timo, Basti and Mathias
+ Thanks to Bernd Teipel and the entire Proud to Print team
+ Thanks to Volmar Delheij for opening the doors of the project to us
+ Implementation team: Jorge Muñoz and Camila Dorado
+ Study support: Jaime Pérez, Javier Ballesteros, Irene García, Andrea Alonso, Sarahbel Barokhel
+ Photos by Gonzalo P. Martos
Aerial photo by Gonzalo P. Martos and Dominik Scheffke
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