19. Mostra Internazionale di Architettura – Padiglione Lussemburghese
Il progetto Sonic Investigations rappresenta il Lussemburgo alla Biennale Architettura di Venezia.
Comunicato stampa
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 will provide 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.
Also, The Luxembourg Pavilion at the 19th International Architecture Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia is delighted to invite you to the Curators' Tour on Thursday 8 May at 2 p.m. CEST with Valentin Bansac, Mike Fritsch, Alice Loumeau, Ludwig Berger & Peter Szendy. Please register through this form before Thursday 1 May, 2025 to attend.
During an exclusive press tour, the curators of the Luxembourg Pavilion will lead visitors through the immersive pavilion space, providing a behind-the-scenes look at the sound excerpts that shaped their research, sharing the creative process behind the project, and explaining how their work contributes to the architectural discipline.
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.
Please find a sound teaser for Ecotonalities: No Other Home Than the In-Between, 2025 by Ludwig Berger here.
On the threshold of the Pavilion, the suspended "Long Throw" parabolic loudspeaker by Anthea Caddy projects a sound work into the space based on a reading by philosopher and musicologist, Peter Szendy.
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 will present 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.
If you are still in Venice on Saturday, 10 May, we would be delighted to welcome you to:
Public performance and book launch “Ecotones: Investigating Sounds and Territories”
In the presence of Ludwig Berger, landscape sound artist, composer and musician, Peter Szendy, French philosopher and musicologist, and contributors of the book.
Date: 10 May 2025
Time: 18:00 to 21:00
Location: Ca’Buccari (Calle Buccari 3, Viale IV Novembre, 65, Venice)
www.venicebiennale.kulturlx.lu
Follow the Instagram with photos and sound excerpts from the project: @venicebiennaleluxembourg
Book (Ecotones: Investigating Sounds and Territories)
Edited in collaboration with philosopher and musicologist Peter Szendy, the book extends the investigations on the relevance of sound in territorial studies outside the context of Luxembourg. Developed as an autonomous book, it offers a curated collection of texts from various disciplines that examine spaces, territories and ecologies through sonic ventures. Much like the sound piece, the book fosters new cultural frameworks and theoretical tools for spatial practitioners.
Structured in three chapters that provide a multiplicity of textual forms including essays, fictions and situated case studies, the book begins by exploring sound as a perceptual medium and the potential for a politics of listening. The second section narrates sonic practices, investigations, methodologies and the sensorial engagement of the listener’s body. Finally, the third section enters territories and field experiments, exploring how to portray sonic entanglements within specific contexts.
The book includes contributions by Peter Szendy, Shannon Mattern, Tim Ingold, Soline Nivet and Ariane Wilson, David George Haskell, Ludwig Berger, Philip Samartzis and Madelynne Cornish (Bogong Centre for Sound Culture), Nadine Schütz, Laure Brayer (CRESSON), Julia Grillmayr, Christina Gruber and Sophia Rut (Lobau Listening Comprehensions), Yuri Tuma (Institute for Postnatural Studies), Emma McCormick Goodhart, as well as a fiction piece by Xabi Molia and poems by Laura Vazquez and Cole Swensen. The graphic identity of the project and the book are designed by Pierre Vanni.
Activations
A series of three events will activate and resonate with the pavilion at key moments, such as the opening week, the Pavilion Days and the closing week. These activations extend the reflection on embodied practices and sensorial approaches to space through sound, engaging with what composer Pauline Oliveros calls Deep Listening. The programme will include an off-site sound performance by Ludwig Berger with readings from the book, a short residency with Gaia Ginevra Giorgi culminating in a performance within the pavilion's immersive space, and an audio-walk through the Venice lagoon guided by Nicola Di Croce, each offering a unique exploration of the audience's body within soundscapes. The events will create a dialogue between the pavilion's production and the local Italian sound research scene.
