Els Huver is the driving force behind De Kopsalon, which was founded in 2016 in Gulpen.
Her career started off as a journalist, writing and producing radio. Over the years she has developed into a creator of narrative audio art preferably on location, where she presents spoken word to a diverse audience in an innovative way. Using apparently simple means, she sows radical imagination in an everyday environment: in a hairdressing salon, in a neighbourhood, in the forest.
During her residency in Odapark, she focuses on her work ‘GEWORTELD, een audioboswandeling’ (ROOTED, an audio forest walk). It is an audio artwork in which the public, while walking through a park and forest, listens to stories about trees and people from the neighbourhood. Slowly but surely the public discovers that trees and men resemble each other.
The sound walk is in line with the current time in which nature is under pressure and climate problems require behavioral change. Even though change is difficult, Els believes that people are more willing to make an effort if it benefits someone who is similar to them. With GEWORTELD, she wants the audience to experience that mankind and trees have lots in common.
In addition to a surprising view on trees, GEWORTELD offers the public an unexpected 'encounter' with people from Venray and the opportunity to listen to them. The world is changing and social connections are under pressure, with the risk that we will become distanced from each other. To prevent this, we must recognize the other for what they are: the tree as an autonomous living being and another human as our equal. It all starts with listening.
Part of GEWORTELD is also a photo exhibition: Tree Listening.