VENICE.- Sonic Investigations is an immersive, joyful and radical invitation to shift focus from the visual to the sonic. In our image-saturated contemporary society, sight often eclipses other senses which are vital to understanding the unseen dynamics of our sensory relationship with environments. Inspired by John Cage’s silent song 4’33’’, Sonic Investigations invites us to close our eyes and actively listen. As a counter project to the hegemony of images, the act of listening opens up new possibilities for exploring both built and natural environments and to move our attention towards giving voices to more-than-human agencies.

As both a practical and theoretical investigation, the project serves as a tool to re explore the dense territory of Luxembourg – a significant case study for global western paradigms in territorial planning. The sounds of the region emanating from biological, geological and anthropogenic beings blend into the intertwined soundscape of the Anthropocene and lead to the question: How to reveal the entangled character of specific contemporary situations in Luxembourg?

Through attentive listening and field recordings that capture a range of sounds from diverse environments, Sonic Investigations creates a new, uncanny and embodied experience of space, thus emphasising the value of sensorial approaches in spatial practices.

Investigating territories through the medium of sound, the project seeks to craft new narratives that reimagine Luxembourg beyond anthropocentric perspectives. By attuning to the auditory dynamics of the region’s densely infrastructured landscapes, the pavilion provides an immersive space to give voice to the invisible. Drawing inspiration from Murray Schafer’s 1960s concept of Acoustic Ecology and Steve Goodman’s Sonic Warfare, sound serves as a point of tension, offering alternative ways to perceive space and confront the challenges of a rapidly transforming environment.

Sound Pieces

A commissioned in-situ sound piece is at the centre of the physical pavilion. Developed in collaboration with sound artist and field recorder Ludwig Berger, the composition weaves together recordings from distinctive locations across Luxembourg, inviting listeners to explore space through a new auditory perspective. The field works spur from encounters and site visits with local specialists encompassing a broad spectrum of disciplines including ecology, social science, engineering, history and data science.

Focusing on multi-perspective field recordings, the piece critically examines the dynamics of the Luxembourgish territory and investigates how ongoing sustainable and digital advancements are shaping the country’s landscape. By employing sound as a tool for spatial and territorial analysis, the project offers a fresh framework for understanding urban and extra-urban contexts, challenging conventional approaches to territorial planning along with the power structures and limitations it creates. The concept of Ecotone – a transitional space between two ecosystems – guides the field recording process, utilising liminal spaces to explore the impact of human intervention on the environment.

A multiplicity of voices are present in the sound piece, from the buzz of data centres to the silence of biodiversity loss, portraying, among other things, forests as spaces of exchange, energy production infrastructures and the architecture of digital technology. By exploring how complex networks coexist, the composition blurs the boundaries between human and nonhuman, natural and artificial, local and global, granting voice to silenced entities and overlooked systems.

Exhibition

Inspired by Bernhard Leitner’s research on Sound Spaces, the pavilion provides an immersive environment where visitors are transported away from the abundance of images into a sonic experience. As banal as listening seems, concentrating solely on sound can create a surprisingly uncanny experience.

Sonic Investigations presents a collection of original content, including a sound piece, written texts, and fieldwork documentation. The aim of the project is to utilise the Biennale context as a platform for generating knowledge rather than physical objects. Therefore, the pavilion's scenography is designed with minimal intervention, creating an ideal acoustic environment to display the soundscapes recorded in Luxembourg. A sustainable material strategy focuses on rental, reuse, recycling and reusability. The physical materials used consist of standard construction elements with minimal modifications, facilitating reimplementation within circular systems.