Listening to Mountains – An Interdisciplinary Dialogue Between Art, Myth, and Ecology

Termites

Termites have long been shrouded in mystery and reverence. In African mythology, they are said to have been the first beings created—witnesses to the birth of humankind and guardians of the secret of our creation. For the Namibian-German artist Imke Rust, these small, unseen creatures become collaborators and teachers in an ongoing artistic and ecological inquiry that spans continents, media, and modes of knowing.

**Dialog**, 50x50cm, Fotodokumentation eines persönlichen Dialogs mit einem Termitenhügel 2022

An Interdisciplinary Exploration

Listening to Mountains is a long-term artistic research project that combines ecological observation, mythological narrative, scientific curiosity, and intuitive creative practice. Through performance, installation, drawing, video, and material experimentation, the project investigates how humans can enter into dialogue with non-human intelligences—specifically, the self-organising and regenerative systems of termite colonies.

The work moves between empirical observation (drawing from entomological research on termite communication and self-regulation), intuitive response (embodied encounters and performances with termite mounds), material transformation (using termite soil, wings, and found natural matter) and exchanges with local elders, farmers and scientists. Each layer contributes to a multisensory exploration of communication, cooperation, and interdependence within living systems.

Methods of Engagement

Imke Rust’s process is site-responsive and process-oriented, grounded in encounters with termite mounds in Namibia and beyond. Through actions such as wrapping canvases around mounds, documenting reactions, and creating soil imprints, she invites both scientific and spiritual dimensions to coexist. The works oscillate between research documentation and poetic abstraction—between knowing and listening.

**Kontaktaufnahme**, 80x60cm
Fotodokumentation einer Performance mit Termitenhügel. Ich nahm äußerlich die Form des Termitenhügels an, und nahm Kontakt zu ‘ihm’ auf.

Selected works include:

Sculpting with Termites (Video) – A performative experiment investigating how termites respond when their mound is covered with a canvas overnight.
Self-Regulating Body (Digital Collage on Canvas) – Drawing parallels between termite mounds and the human body as self-organising organisms.
Mapping of Knowledge – Visual reflections on communication systems within termite societies.
Lost Wings (Termite Queen) – A tactile study on transformation, reproduction, and resilience.
Irdischer Mutterleib (Earthly Womb) – A meditation on the feminine archetype embodied by the termite mound as life-giver and mineral conduit.
Korrespondenz – Exploring ancestral insights that everything in existence is in correspondence.

Themes and Questions

The project poses urgent and timeless questions:

What can humans learn from termite intelligence, cooperation, and sustainability?
How do we bridge indigenous cosmologies and contemporary ecological understanding?
Can artistic practice become a form of inter-species dialogue and decolonial listening?

Through its combination of artistic research, mythology, biology, and ecology, Listening to Mountains challenges anthropocentric views and invites a reorientation towards care, reciprocity, and humility in our relationships with the more-than-human world.