The Johanniskirche in Berlin is not the first church interior that Oldörp has encountered via his installations. The St.-Petri-Kirche in Lübeck, the Parochialkirche in Berlin and the Providenzkirche in Heidelberg, among others, have also been the site and subject of Oldörp's sound architectures.
ABSEITS, the installation in the Johanniskirche, consists of two 6-meter-high metal tripods to which slender glass pipes are attached. A gas canister standing at the base of each tripod feeds the so-called »singing flame« burning in the glass pipe. The flames generate constant sound, rich in overtones.
The two »singing flames« are positioned in dialogue. Like acupuncture needles in space, they release sound energies that disclose the space in a new way. The strolling visitor moves within the dialogue of constant sounds, in between overlappings and modulations.
The title ABSEITS can be understood in various ways, perhaps as ironic commentary on the "footballisation" that reigns during the World Cup. In the context of ecclesiastical space, ABSEITS could conceivably be an allusion to the run after spiritual redemption – which the attentive observer might discern in the slightly displaced arrangement of the tripods and their orientation to the altar.