Sprossen

Prayers sent not to the sky, but into the earth.

SPROSSEN (sprouts) invites visitors not to send prayers, wishes and blessings up to the sky, but to drive them deep into the ground. With a soldering iron, participants burn their messages into prepared wooden stakes — consciously and materially. Then they hammer the stake into the earth at a place of their choice in Steinhausen.

Unlike the lightness of a prayer to the sky, this gesture takes physical effort: the wood has to be anchored firmly until it becomes part of the soil. Native wood takes 15–20 years to rot; beetles, fungi and bacteria break it down, and it can even fossilise. Rotten wood becomes humus — the ground for new life.

SPROSSEN makes the act of prayer tangible and heavy — a symbolic and physical process in which blessings literally take root. It draws a conscious connection between people, nature and natural cycles: every action leaves a trace and makes room for new growth.