Fluisteraars/Whisperers is an ongoing, multi-year art project in which transience, transformation, and the circular power of art take center stage. Disappearance and rebirth are not treated as endpoints, but as links within a continuous cycle.

The project began in 2019 with the installation Clemenswerther Flüsterer, realized as part of the German–Dutch collaboration project Grenzkultur at Clemenswerth Castle (Sögel, Germany). Three life-sized transparent plexiglass animals — a horse, a hunting dog, and a falcon — formed its core. Equipped with soundscapes (in collaboration with Marinus Groen and the Media Art Festival Leeuwarden), these animals symbolized the senses and embodied the intimate connection between humans, nature, and hunting traditions. After its initial presentation, the work was shown again at Beeldenpark De Havixhorst (De Wijk, 2022, exhibition Contrast).

Heebink then deliberately chose a radical turn: the sculpture was ritually destroyed (see project description Legacy). The shredded plexiglass left behind a residue: plexi ash. This material became the basis for new works — video installations, photographic compositions, and performances — in which new meanings emerged from remnants. Children unearthed teacups from chaos, mountains were built from remains, and loss transformed into play. The film Whisperers (2024, in collaboration with Saskia Jeulink) documented this process, revealing how destruction and renewal permeate one another.

In 2024, the project took on new forms, including presentations in the Rensen Hut at DIEP Emmen and the photo series Pompeii Portraits (sudden death). Here, the tension between stillness, transience, and renewed presence became central.

The project finds its provisional completion in a pilgrimage (2025–2026). From the artist’s studio in Kolderveen, the plexi ash is returned to Madreperla in Milan, the original producer of the material. Along the way, small tubes containing plexi ash and a QR code — providing access to films, images, and documentation — are left behind at museums, art spaces, and galleries. As Tom Thumb scattered crumbs to find his way home, so Whisperers leaves a trail that invites reflection and remembrance. Ultimately, in Milan, the plexi ash is remelted into sheet material, closing the circle of matter and meaning.

Whisperers is thus not only an artwork, but a cycle of listening, letting go, and reshaping. It is an ode to the temporary, in which disappearance creates space for transformation and continued existence in new forms.