Permanent sound and video for AUH Psykiatrien
Aarhus University Hospital in Skejby
My Sea is a permanent sound and video projection created for Aarhus University Hospital’s new psychiatric centre.
The centre consists of a four-sided building surrounding a large outdoor space divided into a number of separate courtyards and with a communal house in the middle.
Eva Koch’s video work is projected as a single coherent live picture (2.7 metres high, 22 metres long) onto the north facade of the communal sports-house.
The work is made up of changing sequences showing footage of the sea. The sequences shift between different camera settings on the sea and different seas.
The sound track is an important element, a faint, pleasant sound developed from the sounds of the different seas. The sound is an independent element and will also run during the daylight hours when the picture is not shown.
Most people have a relationship to the sea and many of us remember the first time we saw the sea. Face to face with the sea man is small. Many things can happen in our lives that make life seem meaningless, but the sea keeps on rolling onto the shore. There is something that continues and will keep on continuing when we as individuals are no more.
There is something elementarily liberating about this. The sea is just there; it makes no demands. Sitting by the sea gives most people a sense of peace. By the sea our eyes meet few boundaries; there is little that blocks our view. This is not something we experience all that often in Denmark. We can dream or meditate when we look out over the sea, and the sound of the sea has a calming effect.
A number of the patients come from Greenland, where the sea is an ever-present element. Quite a lot of the footage was filmed in Greenland. For the Greenlandic patients the sea may feel like a greeting from home, a link to the place they come from.
