Hymn to Kalbe
Artist Residency Project at
Künstlerstadt Kalbe, Kalbe, Germany, 2024
Hymn to Kalbe is a multidisciplinary project that explores migration, memory, and the reimagining of home through photography, sound performance, and public art.
Kalbe is a small rural town located in the Saxony-Anhalt region of Germany. Like many towns in this area, Kalbe has faced significant challenges in recent decades, including a declining population, economic stagnation, and widespread outward migration. The town's aging demographic and abandoned houses reflect the struggles of rural communities across Germany.
Hymn to Kalbe emerged from three weeks in the Künstlerstadt Kalbe artist residency. When I arrived in Kalbe, I was struck by its quietness, its abandoned homes, and its stillness. But through its people—those who had chosen to stay and those who had come looking for a place to call home—I saw a different story.
This project is about those stories. Through portraits, sound, and public art, I wanted to explore what it means to belong to a place that feels forgotten, to create a sense of home where none seems to exist. Inspired by Sara Ahmed’s idea of the “stranger,” I saw how our encounters with others can reshape our understanding of home—how it’s not a fixed place but something we build together through connection.
Hymn to Kalbe is a celebration of that process: the light we carry, the stories we share, and the way we create meaning in spaces marked by loss and transformation. For me, it’s a reminder that even in the quietest, most overlooked places, there’s potential for renewal, hope, and connection.
Photography Series:Portraits of Kalbe: Imagining Home
During my stay, I began photographing Kalbe’s residents, people who had chosen to make this quiet, forgotten place their home. People who found refuge here away from the ongoing war, sociologist who dedicates to rethrives the town, and retirees who found peace here shared their stories, reflecting on what it meant to find a sense of belonging here.
These conversations led to portrait sessions where I asked participants to close their eyes and imagine their connection to Kalbe—its environment, its history, and the lives they were building.
Portraits of Kalbe: Imagining Home, Tianjun Li, 2024
Special thanks to Alesha Gura, Heiko Peifer, Simone, and Corinna Köbele for participating in the photography session.
Portraits of Kalbe: Imagining Home, Tianjun Li, 2024
A Public Tribute: Bringing the Light Back to the Abandoned Home
At the end of the residency, I projected these portraits onto the façade of an abandoned building, which uesed to be a landmark heavy with memory and loss.
A Soundtrack and Concerts: Hymn to Kalbe
During my time in Kalbe, I collaborated with Isabel, a cellist moved to Kable for her internship in the resudency, and Simone, a local participant. Together, we created a piece titled Hymn to Kalbe. It started with Isabel’s cello and my voice, improvising melodies inspired by the empty courthouse studio I worked in—a space that seemed to hold the echoes of forgotten lives.
Simone, who had moved to Kalbe years ago and decided to call it home, added her voice to the piece. She wrote a letter to Kalbe, speaking of the peace and belonging she had found in this small town.
We recorded this collaboration in Kalbe’s old church, where the cello’s deep tones, my voice, and Simone’s words came together like a hymn—a love letter to a place that had welcomed us all in different ways.
I also hosted concerts for people living in Kalbe in my studio, a space I lit with vintage East German lamps I had collected from around town. On one rainy night, the studio was packed, the glow of the lamps and the sound of rain outside adding to the intimacy of the moment.