Dive in. Let yourself be carried. Drift with the current. Become a river in the green-blue coolness. Hear the pebbles crackle and the water flow. The world outside, the river inside. The inner river, which sometimes carries a lot of water and sometimes a little, which can flood and tear down, which gently and silently touches the banks. The riverbed its boundary, which constantly redefines itself.
A free river. A shaping, meandering, tearing river. A river carried by the earth.

In the sound installation ARURA, visitors encounter the various facets of the river Aare and the water that flows in it.
The installation is located in a small building on the banks of the Aare in the middle of Bern‘s public space. The building contains four changing rooms that are used by swimmers and that become open sound spaces in ARURA. When visitors enter the cubicles, sensors trigger various sound tracks that play aspects of the river in random order. At the same time, caustics, rays of light refracted on the water surface, flicker on the walls of the cabins.

The name ARURA refers to the oldest surviving designation of the river Aare from late Roman times. The work was conceived and realised in 2020 as part of JETZT KUNST N°9.

ARURA, 2020
interactive sound installation

4 cabines with sensors, LED-panels, lightbulbs, frames filled with water
4-channel audio, mono

a project by KOLLEKTIV BETON and Thomas Baumann
technical support - Thomas Ulvøen 

supported by:
Kultur Kanton Bern
Burgergemeinde Bern