The Listening Biennial

THE LISTENING BIENNIAL draws attention to listening as a relational capacity, a philosophical and political proposition, a creative practice, and research framework. From radical empathy to sonic practices, quiet refusal to somatic wellbeing, eavesdropping to ecological attunement, listening wields a creative and critical force that may contribute to maintaining the diversity of our social adventure.

THE LISTENING BIENNIAL brings together an international constellation of participating artists, researchers and curators, as well as institutions and collectives across the globe, to foster questions and experiences of listening. The Listening Biennial is conceived as a global project and aims at a decentralized structure where shared resonances and cooperative manifestations can emerge across localities. This includes the commissioning and exhibition of audio works, experimental performances, and discursive events hosted and presented at collaborating institutions and venues, where listening and locality are accentuated, and cultural specificities contribute to a greater ecology of attention. From critical storytelling, experimental noise, and musical rapture to acoustic care, interspecies contact, and ecologies of sounded matter, the Biennial aims at fostering a listening culture.

THE LISTENING BIENNIAL is managed by a team of artists, curators, researchers and organizers, including artistic director Brandon LaBelle with partners Annette le Fort, Octavio Carmago, Elizabeth Gallón Droste and Pablo Torres Gómez; curatorial associates Budhaditya Chattopadhyay, Florencia Curci, Israel Martínez, Luísa Santos, Lucia Udvardyova, Yang Yeung. In addition, Lucia Farinati (London), Anastasia (A) Khodyreva (Turku), and Sara Hamdy (Cairo) contribute curatorially to The Listening Academy and related initiatives. Sophie M acts as assistant and researcher, helping manage communications and development. THE LISTENING BIENNIAL works at fostering a transnational network comprised of partner institutions, organizations and spaces, including SomaRumor (Rio de Janeiro), Investigaciones del Futuro (Buenos Aires), Lydgalleriet (Bergen), la Asociación de Música Electroacústica de España (Madrid), l’École d’art of Université Laval (Quebec), TheCube Project Space (Taipei), soundpocket (Hong Kong), Tsonami Arte Sonoro (Valparaíso), Sonic Spaces (Cairo), among others. In addition, the Biennial is supported by many friends and colleagues whose expertise and passion contribute greatly to ongoing activities.