as part of Oltre le mura / Beyond the walls
a project by Fabbrica Europa for Autunno Fiorentino

A moment of encounter where artists Benno Steinegger and Eirik Havnes retrace their creative journey, sharing it with the audience and freely shaping an installation composed of collected sound works.

Library of Botanical Voices is a project born from the long-term work To Those Who Will Survive by Benno Steinegger, who invited Eirik Havnes to collaborate with him in exploring the relationship between plants and sound.
The project includes a preparatory workshop phase dedicated to collecting materials that will be used to create the lesson-performance, in which participants are invited to describe their plants. Based on these descriptions, the artists will compose a short sound piece for each plant.

Benno Steinegger is an artist and performer born in Bolzano in 1980. After studying at the University of Florence, he deepened his training in theatre and performance by completing a Master of Arts in Advanced Theatre Practice at the Central School of Speech & Drama in London. In 2008, he co-founded the artistic collective Codice Ivan, with which he developed a body of work that intersects theatre, performance, visual arts, and new media. His work stands out for its profound reflection on two central themes: identity and structures of power. In i (to be defined), he deconstructs his own identity through numerous interviews with people who describe him. In 2023, he created the film Language Portraits – Ritratti di lingue, dedicated to the importance of minority languages and the ways in which they shape our perception of the world. That same year, he collaborated with artist Jovial Mbenga on the performance The Chance to Find Yourself, which explores friendship, cultural differences, and the possibility of recognizing oneself in the other.
One of his most recent projects is To Those Who Will Survive, an ongoing performance focused on imagining a radically different relationship between humans and nature—particularly between humans and plants.

Eirik Havnes is a Norwegian sound artist, composer, and guitarist. His creations move along the border between word, sound, and technology, with a strong focus on the natural landscape and human experience. Among his most acclaimed works is Livet av Havnes, an intense performance that weaves together poetic, theatrical, and musical elements to symbolically narrate the cycle of life—from birth to death. Another significant piece is Alt som lever skal dø, created in collaboration with Lars Ove Fossheim. In this project, Havnes explores the profound connection between humans and nature, reflecting on the transience of life through a hybrid language of poetic texts and layered soundscapes. Perhaps the work that best embodies his artistic research is Polyfonatura, in which he collects natural sounds—from wind through trees to birdsong—and transforms them into actual musical instruments.

Oltre le mura / Beyond the walls is carried out within the framework of