Where is the Potter? Where the buyer? Where the Seller?

Installation in the Black-Box of HfM Mainz (20-27 February 2026)

This installation explores death as a process of transformation within nature, inspired by poems of the Persian poet Omar Khayyam (1048–1131). In these verses, Khayyam imagines that clay vessels are formed from the bodies of former kings and lovers, reminding us that all things are mortal and ultimately return to soil.

Fragments of these poems are played in Farsi and English through speakers hidden inside clay pots and vessels. Visitors move through the space wearing headphones that emit white noise recorded from the sound of soil. As they walk among the vessels, they attempt to listen to the voices outside the headphones, yet the white noise continually masks and dissolves those sounds.

Here, the headphones are not instruments for attentive listening but devices of obstruction. They suggest that the full spectrum of frequencies contains and absorbs all sound, just as nature ultimately absorbs all bodies. Listening becomes an act of struggle, mirroring the fragile attempt to grasp meaning within an ever-encompassing continuum.

The name of the installation comes from a poem by Khayyam:

Last night I wandered into the potter’s shed,

Where countless silent pots were lying, dead.

Suddenly one vessel cried aloud in fear:

“Where is the potter? Where the buyer? Where the seller?”


This project originated in an interdisciplinary seminar called Piltzenwunder, inspired by Blumenwunder, an early experimental film examining hidden structures and invisible processes in nature. The seminar explored parallels between fungi, music, and sound, forming the conceptual basis for my project.


Fungi exist largely underground as mycelial networks that connect, decompose, and redistribute matter. Their presence is usually perceived indirectly—through their effects or occasional visible forms. Sound operates in a comparable way: it is immaterial, temporal, and relational, shaping space without a fixed form.


The work draws on the philosophy of Omar Khayyam, whose writings engage deeply with impermanence and the instability of human constructs such as identity, power, and permanence. His recurring imagery—where clay vessels are formed from human remains—dissolves boundaries between living and non-living matter, suggesting transformation rather than finality. This perspective resonates with fungal processes, where decomposition enables renewal and continuity.


The installation brings these ideas into a spatial and sonic form. Selected quatrains by Khayyam are presented in Farsi, German, and English across three audio channels. Handmade vessels, constructed from soil collected from different locations, function as sculptural bodies and as resonating chambers. They embody transformation, acting not as neutral containers but as material witnesses to change.


White noise plays a key role in the work. Recordings of sea and soil produce dense, continuous sound fields containing multiple frequencies. Like soil itself, these sounds do not point to a single source but hold layers and traces together, forming a sonic ground where all sounds are potentially present therefore it dissolves all sounds.


Headphones are used in a way that challenges their typical function as isolating devices. Instead of separating the listener from the environment, they create a condition where recorded sound blends with the surrounding space. This overlap brings different states—life and death, presence and absence—into a shared auditory field.


Technically, the installation combines handmade structures, embedded speakers, field recordings, and portable audio devices. Visitors can move freely through the space with headphones, connecting bodily movement to the fixed sculptural elements. The arrangement includes pedestals and seating, encouraging prolonged engagement with the work.


The poems are selected from Taraneh-hā-ye Khayyām by Sadegh Hedayat. Twenty quatrains were chosen for their connection to soil, clay, and transformation, forming the textual foundation of the installation.


Ultimately, the work invites the audience to engage with listening as an active process and to experience life and mortality not as opposites, but as intertwined and continuous conditions.