Greenhouse cultivation enables new landscapes to exist within established ones, as a greenhouse set up in the polder, for instance, can accommodate a different climate for growing crops. Marcel Mrejen (1994) collected greenhouse sounds, such as the buzzing and droning of ventilators, pumps, and neon lights. He then fed hours of these audio recordings to an artificial intelligence that transformed them into a soundscape. Placed outside the Van Nellefabriek, the installation Cottagecore (Paradise Haunts Growth) (2022) is playing this soundscape with the help of nine speakers. The artist is no longer in control of what the installation allows the public to hear, while its duration is undetermined as well. Apart from being a spatial entity, the sculpture thus also extends over a period of time.
Those who approach it will mainly hear mechanized sounds. The installation’s volume seems to be steadily increasing, which makes you suspect it is leading up to a grand gesture or some kind of climax — but it never does. Unlike impressive agricultural machines, however, the device in Mrejen’s installation does not have a distinct function. In keeping with his general interest in economic processes and forms of exploitation, he calls the installation “wilfully counterproductive”. The panels the artist created for the interior exhibition space tap into this as well. Occasionally, the installation outside produces the sound of a voice. According to Mrejen this is the algorithm’s consciousness contemplating the costs of growth: How can we use technology to restore non-exploitative relationships with the planet?
Text: Jorne Vriens
Translation from Dutch to English: Marie Louise Schoondergang