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 weak ontology, poetic refusal to diasporic resistance, eavesdropping to intimate envelopment, 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, musicians, and researchers, 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 polyvocal 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 environments of sounded matter, the Biennial aims at fostering a listening world.

THE LISTENING BIENNIAL is managed by a team of artists, curators, scholars and organizers, including Artistic director Brandon LaBelle with Annette le Fort and Octavio Carmago; curatorial advisors Budhaditya Chattopadhyay, Israel Martínez, and Yang Yeung. In addition, Lucia Farinati (London) and  Anastasia A. Khodyreva (Turku) assist in facilitating The Listening Academy. Sophie M and Gentian Meikleham act as assistants and researchers, helping manage  communications and development. In addition, the Biennial is supported by friends and colleagues whose expertise and passion contribute greatly to ongoing activities.