Jan Carleklev

Ecologic (2026) 

Looking back on my time at Hökafältet on the shores of Laholm Bay in the residency Between the Rains I see it as the beginning of several remarkable processes. It was there that I first encountered the Sand Singer, along with many other living beings in and around Hökafältet. There were sand bees, green tiger beetles, geologists, local heritage associations, and a group of children. Each of them became my collaborators in the work at Hökafältet, and each contributed to shaping The Sand Singer, a work that has since been presented both as a performance and as a sound/video installation. 

There was one sentence in the theme of the invitation to the residency Between the Rains that stayed with me: “Where we wait in silence and anxious anticipation for the rain to fall once again.” That sentence contains so much space for action and imagination. Yet, it also carries something dark and ominous in the silence it evokes—like heavy rain clouds through which only a few slender rays of light manage to break, suspended on the threshold between hope and despair. 

I listen for sounds I cannot hear and try to speak of things I do not know. I want to reveal what I do not understand, and together with others I want to marvel at our own limitations. What does it really mean to understand? Is understanding the same as knowing? Is it about recognizing the world as it appears to another human being—or to something beyond the human? If so, then we need to learn to embrace our limitations and to love the mysterious. 

The nocturnal walk Ecologic begins with an exploration of my own and others’ limitations, as well as my work with the extraordinary sonic world of bats. The work attempts to tune into something that we humans find so difficult to grasp: we are not the pinnacle of creation, but creatures who all too often stumble through the dark. In Ecologic, we ask whether bats might help guide us as we wander in the shadows of our own limitations, while at the same time allowing us to marvel at their remarkable world of sound. 

We will never hear the song of the bat. Yet again and again we can imagine how it echoes through the night, and I believe that song is beautiful. And I have come to understand that there is something profoundly beautiful in marveling at one’s own inability to fully understand. 

– Jan Carleklev  

Ecologic is preformed on Nov 21 at Halland Art Museum

Jan Carleklev is an artist whose practice is rooted in participation and listening. He describes himself as a pair of giant ears with superpowers, tuned in to capture voices that go unheard and events that remain unseen. Through projects such as insect orchestras, a bat choir, and sound walks, his work evolves in collaboration with the participants. 

https://carleklev.se/

The residency Between the Rains (Varberg and Laholm municipalities, 2022) was based on the concept of ecological literacy: how we perceive and understand the significance of ecological interconnections. Four artists engaged in a dialogue with contemporary environmental debates, posthumanist ideas regarding interspecies kinship, and the urgent need for societal transformation.