Melted for Love

Taking place in Amsterdam, the Sonic Acts Biennial 2026 unfolds during February and March across 20 venues, presenting 80 events and showcasing the work of more than 200 artists. Titled Melted for Love, the programme reimagines home not as a physical structure, but as a site of invitation, attentiveness, and care. On the opening weekend, a series of celebratory activations are staged at several of the exhibition spaces. Midway through the Biennial, the festival weekend marks a crescendo: four days of non-stop programming, including live concerts, the symposium, and a high-energy club night.

Biennial Opening Weekend, February 5–8
On Thursday February 5, the Listening Room opens at Zone2Source in Amstelpark. Developed in close collaboration with the Musical Research Group of the French National Audiovisual Institute (INA GRM), the exhibition is a fully sound-based experience, inviting visitors into a contemplative and immersive listening environment. It brings together newly commissioned works—many developed through Sonic Acts’ Spatial Sound Residency—by artists such as BJ Nilsen, Femi Shonuga-Fleming, and Elizabeth Davis, alongside contributions from Chris Watson (of Cabaret Voltaire), Tomoko Sauvage, Leilehua Lanzilotti, Michèle Bokanowski, François J. Bonnet, and many more. The opening event features a conversation and collective listening session to pieces by Sam Dunscombe and pantea, drawing on field recordings from borderlands and ecological zones shaped by non-human agency.

Across the galleries W139, Arti et Amicitiae, and Rozenstraat, the central Biennial Exhibition, titled Melted for Love, brings together installations, films, sound works, and performances that hold space for grief, foregrounding gestures of care, repair, and collective response.

On Friday February 6, the exhibition at W139 opens with Pedagogy of the Surveilled: Listen Like Wolves, a performance by Music Research Strategies (Marshall Trammell), followed by a free Sonic Acts party at Bar San Francisco.

The Opening Weekend continues on Saturday February 7 at Arti et Amicitiae, and concludes on Sunday February 8 at Rozenstraat with Search Sweet Country, a live performance by Christian Nyampeta.

Biennial Festival Weekend, February 26–March 1
The festival weekend is the beating heart and midpoint of the Biennial and the format Sonic Acts was originally known for. From February 26 to March 1,  the Festival Weekend brings together concerts, exhibitions, audiovisual performances and conversations, offering visitors—especially those travelling from abroad—the chance to experience the Biennial at its most concentrated and alive.

On February 26 at Muziekgebouw, the large-scale AV concert Expanded Experience is an intense six-hour journey, keeping audiences alert as sound, image, and architecture merge. The night features Robert Aiki Aubrey Lowe, Mazen Kerbaj, bela with Anton Filatov, and many more.

On February 27–28, Paradiso hosts the Spatial Sound Concerts on the world-renowned Acousmonium—an orchestra of around 60 loudspeakers. Alongside concerts and diffusions by BJ Nilsen, KMRU & Aho Ssan, Leila Bordreuil & Drew McDowall, among many, encounter celebrated historical sound works by Éliane Radigue, Jim O’Rourke, Beatriz Ferreyra, and others. Also on February 27, Garage Noord hosts a Club Night with DJ sets and live performances by DJ DIE SOON & Rully Shabara, Jokkoo Collective, and many more.

The multi-venue exhibition Melted for Love stretches across W139, Arti et Amicitiae, and Rozenstraat, with works by Adelita Husni-Bey, Dominique White, Eglė Budvytytė, Noor Abed, and others. Alongside these venues, Sonic Acts collaborates with Framer Framed on Between Fires: Irradiated Imaginations and Anti-Nuclear Solidarities exhibition, featuring Sonic Acts commissions by buulbuul and Äsel Kadyrkhanova, alongside Inas Halabi, Emilija Škarnulytė, Demian DinéYazhi’, Almagul Menlibayeva, and others. Also on view is the exhibition Sounds of Skies, Forests of Instability at Het Documentaire Paviljoen, which presents new commissions by Femke Herregraven and Sébastien Robert.

At the Stedelijk Museum, the two-day Sonic Acts Biennial Symposium, divided into four separate blocks on February 28 and March 1, features 20 speakers and artists, including Margarida Mendes, Steve Goodman (Kode9), Salomé Voegelin, Lawrence Abu Hamdan, and Yuk Hui.

About Sonic Acts
Sonic Acts is a leading platform for international projects, research, and the co-production of new artworks. Founded in 1994 to present new developments in electronic and digital art forms, the organisation has gained prominence through its residencies, publications, commissions, and the Sonic Acts Biennial—an intensive (sound) art, theory and technology programme motivated by changes in the ecological, political, and social landscape. 

More information and tickets: 2026.sonicacts.com.