LIVING MATTERS by Sjoerd Leijten & Johannes Bellinkx
DATE Premiere 8 August – afterwards open at all hours
MEETING PLACE Refshalevej in front of bus stop 2A on the grass, Refshaleøen – SEE MAP
WHAT Sound walk in English with your own phone and headphones
FREE
If our surroundings could speak – a soundwalk meandering through Refshaleøen
What if we could navigate like birds – or dance like microbes?
How does it feel to grow like a tree?
What if we could slowly conquer a harsh place as Lichen?
What if buildings could breathe and oxygen was toxic?
Living Matters is a soundwalk that brings us closer to the hidden worlds of Refshaleøen. Here, art and industry, urban development and wild nature, humans and other forms of life meet in a landscape full of unseen connections.
Follow a trail of voices through the island’s many layers, as the site’s grand scenography opens up around you. Dive into radio waves and water currents, explore the cycle of wastewater, listen to the life of trees, and encounter stories embedded in the past and present of the landscape.
Along the way, Refshaleøen unfolds as a living microcosm of the world around us. With body, senses, and imagination as your guide, Living Matters invites you to experience your surroundings – and perhaps yourself – from new perspectives.
This is not a walk full of answers. It is an invitation to listen, explore, and discover the many invisible connections that make the world so beautifully complex.
Duration: approx. 2 hours
Language: English
INSTRUCTIONS
- Download the app ECHOES interactive sound walks (iOS & Android) on your phone – search for Living Matters
- Make sure your phone and headphones are charged
- Put on your headphones, and turn off noise cancellation
- Switch to flight mode once the walk has been downloaded
- Avoid using your phone during the walk
The soundwalk is GPS-triggered, so the sounds and stories will appear automatically as you move through the landscape at your own pace.
If you are in groups of more than two, please leave about 3 minutes between each pair/each departure.
The map shows the route, but once you begin, you can put your phone away and let the experience unfold around you.
ABOUT THE ARTISTS
SJOERD LEIJTEN (he/him) is a transdisciplinary maker and composer working with sound, language, and imagery. He is interested in engaged, attentive ways of being in the world – political, ecological, embodied and, last but not least, relational.
He works around concepts such as electromagnetic sensibility, joyful militancy, slow violence and aural architecture. His work consists of performances, installations, radio works, compositions, releases, films, DIY instruments and sound walks.
www.sjoerdleijten.nl
JOHANNES BELLINKX belongs to a generation of Dutch artists who are making an international mark with their brand of vivid stagings of everyday life. He is originally a social geographer, but subsequently trained at the Amsterdam Theatre School, famous for its visual/scenographic approach to performing arts.
Johannes’ work is interdisciplinary and based on research. He often takes as his starting point a radical concept related to topics that have an impact on our way of living. He loves to challenge his audience by expanding our ability to sense and make us create our own stories.
At Metropolis you have previously been able to experience Bellinkx’s binocular installation FRAMING in 2017, the backwards walk REVERSE in 2019, and the sensory installation INSIDE OUT in 2025. His works are presented at festivals in Europe, including as a selected artist of the network In Situ – European platform for artistic creation in public space.
www.johannesbellinkx.com
CREDITS
Concept, sound composition and writing: Sjoerd Leijten
Concept and routing: Johannes Bellinkx
Artistic advice and writing: Dennis Gaens
Voices: Sjoerd Leijten, Dennis Gaens, Eva Kijlstra, Inne Eysermans & Johannes Bellinkx
Bass Clarinet: Fie Schouten
Produced by Metropolis – Københavns Internationale Teater, SoAP Maastricht, C-Takt/Dommelhof Neerpelt
Thanks to Metropolis, Oleg Koefoed, By & Havn, Refshaleøens Ejendomsselskab, In Situ / Creative Europe, The Dutch Performing Arts Fund
References and inspiration from Rachel Carson, Andreas Malm, Ed Young, T.S. Eliot, Donna Haraway, Emanulle Coccia, James Joyce and many more…
Photo: Johannes Bellinkx