The Listening Biennial

For its third edition, The Listening Biennial brings together sonic, visual and performative works by an international cohort of artists for a week-long program of collective listening. Aiming to foster experimental, restorative practices, The Listening Biennial offers a hospitable, participatory space for deep breaths and slow talk, and for listening-with the vibrant matters of our planetary world. Comprised of audio works and artistic installations presented throughout the building of Ballhaus Ost, an informal talk series taking place under the trees, and an evening program of live performances and experimental sounds, we invite audiences into a listening journey full of poetic voices, stories, noises and songs. In particular, The Listening Biennial works at building greater listening cultures, nurturing radical openness and compassionate action.

Including audio works by: Florence Cats/Lilja María Ásmundsdóttir (Belgium/Iceland), Dr. Rachel S.Y. Chen with Wheelsmith and Sky Shen (Singapore), Kaur Chimuk (India), Mariana Pinto Coelho Dias (Portugal), MycoDyke (India), Hear and Found (Thailand), Shwe Wutt Hmon (Myanmar), Lynn Nandar Htoo (Myanmar), Malik Irtiza (Kashmir, India), Lagos Sound Artists Collective (Nigeria), Okui Lala & Nasrikah (Malaysia), Nicole L’Huillier (Chile/Germany), Chong Li-chuan (Singapore), Subhash Thebe Limbu (Nepal), Elena Lucca (Argentina), Imaad Majeed (Sri Lanka), Yara Mekawei (Egypt), Graciela Muñoz (Chile), Jacqueline Nova (Belgium/Colombia), Lujáne Vaqar Pagganwala (Pakistan), Amanda Piña (Austria/México), Ruhail Qaisar (Ladakh, India), Superlative Futures - Wong Zihao & Diancong Liu (Singapore), Irazema H. Vera (Peru), Valentina Villarroel (Chile), YIM Sui Fong (Hong Kong), Zeropowercut (India).

With live performances by: Kirstin Burckhardt (USA/Germany), Miguel Buenrostro (Mexico/Germany), Lílian Campesato (Brazil), Mariana Carvalho (Brazil/Germany), Isuru Kumarasinghe & Sara Mikolai (Sri Lanka), Agustín Genoud (Argentina), Yara Mekawei (Egypt/Germany), Stefan Roigk (Germany), Siegmar Zacharias (Germany).

Artistic works by: Asef-Burckhardt (Argentina/USA/Germany), Max Bloching (Germany), Annette le Fort (Germany), Silvia Maglioni/Graeme Thomson (Italy/Scotland), Israel Martínez (Mexico), Oficina de Autonomia (Spain/Brazil).

Curated by: Mario Asef, Brandon LaBelle, Alecia Neo, Soledad Garcia Saavedra, Suvani Suri

The Listening Biennial is an artistic project focusing on listening as a creative practice. It consists of a network of international partner institutions and organizations, with its main base in Berlin. Central to the project is bringing focus to listening as a critical activity that contributes positively to enriching individual lives as well as building bridges across society. This includes recognizing how important listening is for overcoming conflict and peace building, for supporting education and learning, as well as greater physical and emotional health, and for nurturing ecological sensitivity and how we may coexist with other living things. Through its ability to ameliorate situations of crisis by deepening empathy and understanding, listening is essential to democracy as a project of social justice. The Listening Biennial presents public programs which involve audiences in experiencing different ways of listening, to encounter voices and life stories from a diversity of people and cultures, and to reflect about listening as a transformative power which can help address current crises and how we can better hear each other.