Sonic Acts

We are thrilled to announce the Sonic Acts Biennial, 'Melted for Love’! 📍Amsterdam | 🗓️ 5 February to 29 March 2026 The Biennial spans more than 80 events and 15 venues, bringing together over 200 artists for a large-scale exhibition, listening sessions, spatial sound concerts and performances, symposium, artist talks, club nights, workshops, films, and much more. In a world marked by crises, conflict, and displacement, the Sonic Acts Biennial 2026 reimagines home – not as a physical structure, but as a site of invitation, attentiveness, and care. Here, to be ‘melted for love’ means to dissolve into gentleness, allowing closeness to overcome distance, and creating a foundation for a new kind of belonging. With open ears and full hearts, we listen, attuned to the songs, transmissions, and resonances that hold us close to one another, and that call us home. Inspired by the Palestinian national poet Mahmoud Darwish, whose verses echo in the title, the Sonic Acts Biennial 2026 takes place across iconic Amsterdam venues such as Paradiso, Muziekgebouw, W139, Arti et Amicitiae, Rozenstraat – a rose is a rose is a rose, Stedelijk Museum, Eye Filmmuseum, Zone2Source, De Ateliers/Woonhuis, Het Documentaire Paviljoen/IDFA Institute, Oude Kerk, Jakoozi, murmur, Singelkerk, Garage Noord, Athenaeum Nieuwscentrum, and Rijksmuseum, alongside a special collaboration with Framer Framed. → Keep an eye on our website and social media, as more information and workshop open calls will be available soon! Visual identity: @konradrenner @christophknoth @aeni.kaiser Sonic Acts Biennial 2026 is supported by @stimuleringsfonds , @amsterdamsfondsvoordekunsten , @fonds21_ , @mondriaanfonds , @cultuurfonds , @filmfonds , @cultuurloketdigitall , and @fondspodiumkunsten , as well as ‘New Perspectives for Action’, a project by @reimagineeurope co-funded by the EU, and the @erasmusplusprojects of the European Union, alongside a collaboration with presentation partner @hartwigartfoundation .

Looking back at the Symposium Block 1: Philosophies of Displacement with Yuk Hui and Flavia Dzodan during Sonic Acts Biennal 2026 Philosophies of Displacement delved into rootlessness as a condition of our time, exploring feelings of disconnection, drift, and modes of confronting capitalism and its technological infrastructures. Throughout the symposium, philosopher Yuk Hui, known for his influential concept of ‘cosmotechnics’ – which rethinks technology through non-Western philosophical frameworks – reflects on 'becoming-homeless' as a condition endemic to our age, in which global capitalism and environmental crisis erode our sense of belonging. His talk imagined home differently: across multiple worlds and ways of being. Writer and theorist Flavia Dzodan followed the talk with Affective Logistics, examining how digital infrastructures capture and direct emotion as if it were cargo. Tracing the histories of command systems and domestic optimisation, she listens for the noise that slips through – the emotions that cannot be measured or contained. Yuk Hui’s lecture is realised as part of New Perspectives for Action, a project by Re-Imagine Europe, co-funded by the European Union. Flavia Dzodan’s lecture is realised by Paradiso and Sonic Acts as part of the same funding scheme. #reimagineeurope #newperspectivesforaction co-funded by #europeanunion Image 1 & 2: Flavia Dzodan’s lecture during the Symposium at the Stedelijk Museum by Angelina Nikolayeva Image 3 & 4: Yuk Hui’s lecture during the Symposium at the Stedelijk Museum by Angelina Nikolayeva #flaviadzodan #yukhui

From pirate radio archives to improvisational DJing, Loma Doom (real name: Femke Dekker) reflects on listening as artistic practice and collective action. In the article 'The Art of Listening,' she talks with curator and writer Hannah Pezzack about listening, archives, improvisation, and underground sonic cultures. Originally published in the 7th issue of Sonic Acts' 'Ecoes' magazine, the conversation moves through radio as a site of resistance, the politics of collective listening, and the porous boundaries between DJing and sound art. Swirling with textures, Loma Doom’s DJ sets unfold through sedimentary layers of sound. Frequently playing across four or more turntables, her fingers gliding over vinyl and jog wheels, she weaves together field recordings, solo vocal arrangements, archival snippets, and avant-garde instrumentals. From excavating the archive of de Appel Arts Centre to the project 'RE:ACTIVATE' with recordings from Amsterdam’s squat radio station Radio de Vrije Keyser, Dekker explores how listening can function as both practice and call to action – connecting past and present forms of resistance. → Read the article on Substack via the link in bio → Subscribe to Substack for regular articles, interviews, and conversations exploring sound, art, listening, and ecology Photo by Nicola Barrato. Sonic Acts is supported by @stimuleringsfonds and @afk020

On Saturday 23 May, Sonic Acts takes part in the book fair ‘Notes to Other Futures’ at Framer Framed in Amsterdam (11:00–20:00). Entry is free, and everyone is welcome. Join us! Bringing together collectives, artists, activists, and independent publishers, the fair approaches publishing as a shared practice – one that values accessibility, collaboration, and the circulation of ideas as much as the books themselves. Throughout the day, visitors can explore publisher stands, meet practitioners, and join presentations. → Read more via @framerframed Sonic Acts Press will be present with a stand featuring a selection of publications at discounted prices, offering an overview of its catalogue spanning books, magazines, and sound releases. → Explore Sonic Acts Press publications in our shop via the link in bio. 🔥 LAST WEEKS: Don’t miss visiting the exhibition ‘Between Fires: Irradiated Imaginations and Anti-Nuclear Solidarities’ at Framer Framed – curated by Fabienne Rachmadiev in collaboration with Sonic Acts for the 2026 Biennial. Tracing nuclear histories, colonial violence, and resistance from the Kazakh steppe to the present, and featuring new works by buulbuul and Äsel Kadyrkhanova. On view until 17 May. Photography by Pieter Kers.

In the recently published podcast ‘Son[i]a #453’ by Radio Web MACBA, artist and teacher Cocky Eek reflects on her distinctive practice of working with inflatables – exploring the delicate interplay of fabric, air, and anchoring, and the challenge of preserving inherently fleeting works. Moving through mud, wind, and sand, she considers the unstable position her work occupies within fine art discourse, while speculating on how shifting our sensory perception might open up new ways of experiencing the world. 🎧: Listen to the podcast via the link in bio. Eek previously contributed to the Sonic Acts Biennial 2024 with ‘The Muddy Muddy Mystery Tour’, a field trip and workshop set along the Frisian coastline. There, participants were invited to engage directly with the tidal landscape – building low-tech mud listening devices and tuning into the rhythms of the Wadden Sea, where sky, water, and earth converge. Through collective exploration and experimentation, the project foregrounded fieldwork as a way of sensing and understanding our environment – an approach that continues to resonate in Eek’s practice today. Photos by Bora Şekerci. Co-produced by Radio Web MACBA and Sonic Acts as part of ‘New Perspectives for Action’, a project by Re-Imagine Europe, co-funded by the EU.

The Sonic Acts Biennial 2026 reader ‘Ecoes 8’ is a 250-page book about sonic warfare, noise pollution as a political tool, attentive listening, listening to ecocide, and imagining the sounds of home. In this fresh compendium of texts and interviews, Steve Goodman (Kode9), Lawrence Abu Hamdan, Margarida Mendes, Jeremy Deller, and 12 other authors respond to the Biennial theme ‘Melted for Love’. Find the book in our Shop – and for a limited time, you can buy it with the Sonic Acts Tote Bag. Don’t miss out, because this offer is up while stock lasts! ➝ Buy the bundle via the link in bio. The tote bag is made from heavyweight certified organic cotton (42 × 33 cm) with sturdy handles – ideal for visiting upcoming festivals and biennials. Subscribe to our monthly newsletter via the link in bio to stay up-to-date about our programme. Sonic Acts is supported by @stimuleringsfonds & @afk020 .

Join us on 6 June for Slow Reading Club (SRC), a late-night event where reading shifts from a solitary act into a shared, bodily experience. Hosted by Sonic Acts at Salon de IJzerstaven in Amsterdam, the space will be soaked in poetry, prose, music, yellow light, and drinks. Participants are invited to read, listen, repeat, pause, and move through the space, creating a rhythm of voices without hierarchy or static meaning. ➞ Buy your ticket via the link in bio. This participatory event, led by Bryana Fritz and Henry Andersen, draws on texts from Sonic Acts Press, featuring extracts from books and journals published since 2001 on art, sound, technology, and environmental rupture. These essays and excerpts function as prompts for collective engagement rather than material to be analysed. Guided by simple instructions – read in unison, take turns, repeat lines – participants experience reading as a performative act shaped by voice, timing, movement, and proximity. This process invites new, embodied ways of encountering text. 📍 @deijzerstaven 📅 6 June 2026, 20:00–22:30 (doors 19:30) 🎟️ €12 (30% student discount) | 18+ | Limited capacity. Subscribe to our monthly newsletter via the link in bio to stay up-to-date about our programme. 📷: Slow Reading Club, 2024. Photo by Nikola Lamburov. This iteration of Slow Reading Club is organised in the context of Sonic Acts Archive projects, and is supported by the @mondriaanfonds and @cultuurloket_digitall . Sonic Acts is supported by @stimuleringsfonds & @afk020 .

In the recently published podcast ‘Son[i]a #452’, artist and architect Ameneh Solati talks about revolutionary landscapes and the relationship between environment and resistance. 🎧: Listen to the podcast via the link in bio. Solati has been researching the Mesopotamian Marshes in southern Iraq for a long time – a complex territory where water, land, and political power meet. Her commissioned installation ‘Might Water Grieve?’, which was on display at Arti et Amicitiae during the Sonic Acts Biennial 2026, showed how sound can be a potent way of sensing a landscape that is both fragile and deeply politicised. Rather than framing the drainage of the wetlands in the 1990s as ecological catastrophe or isolated political violence, Solati situates it within a history of environmental governance and territorial control. Radio Web MACBA’s conversation explores how these histories of violence resonate today. This episode of the podcast series is interspersed with sounds and watery textures edited by artist and researcher pantea. Photos by Pieter Kers. Co-produced by Radio Web MACBA, BEK, and Sonic Acts, as part of ‘New Perspectives for Action’, a project by Re-Imagine Europe, co-funded by the EU.

Looking back at the Sonic Acts Spatial Sound Concerts 2026 🔊 Two evenings, thirteen concerts and ten hours of spatial sound. This edition of the Sonic Acts biennial featured live performances and diffusions that unfolded on the world-famous Acousmonium – an orchestra of around sixty loudspeakers designed to envelop listeners.  Moving between analogue instruments, self-designed digital tools, field recordings, and live performance, each artist articulates a distinct sonic language – one that stretches perception and reshapes the act of listening itself. The Spatial Sound Concerts are presented by Sonic Acts and Hartwig Art Foundation, and co-organised with the Musical Research Group of the French National Audiovisual Institute (INA GRM). The programmes are also realised by Paradiso and Sonic Acts as part of New Perspectives for Action, a project by Re-Imagine Europe, co-funded by the European Union. With the friendly support of the Ernst von Siemens Musikstiftung. Image 1: BJ Nilsen performing during Spatial Sound Evening at Paradiso Image 2: Spatial Sound Evening at Paradiso Image 3: Leila Bordreuil and Drew McDowall performing during Spatial Sound Evening at Paradiso Image 4: Spatial Sound Evening at Paradiso Photos by Angelina Nikolayeva.

The exhibition ‘Between Fires’ at Framer Framed – curated by Fabienne Rachmadiev, and presented in collaboration with Sonic Acts as part of the 2026 Biennial – is on view until 17 May, with additional programming scheduled in the coming weeks. 📅 On Saturday 18 April at 16:00 come to Framer Framed for the launch of the new ‘Errant Journal’. The theme is located in regions affected by Russian imperial aggression, from where it explores the radical potential of companionship. This issue includes a conversation with Fabienne Rachmadiev about the exhibition Between Fires. 📅 On Friday 24 April at 19:00 at Framer Framed, join artist Kamila Narysheva for a talk and a listening session of the sound installation ‘T1/2 (Half-Life)’, a collaborative work with Vicky Clarke composed of field recordings made at the Semipalatinsk Nuclear Test Site in eastern Kazakhstan, where the Soviet Union carried out over 450 nuclear tests between 1949 and 1989. The recordings were captured using hydrophones and contact microphones in irradiated rivers, on concrete test structures, and across the surrounding steppe. If you want to know more, read a great interview with artists from Anton Spice on Substack (via link in our bio). Both events are free to attend with a registration. 📸1: Horizontal glitch and recording of ‘T1/2 (Half-Life)’. Photos: courtesy of the artists. 2: Cover of the ‘Errant Journal’ #9, 2026.

After an exhilarating 8 weeks, Sonic Acts Biennial 2026 has come to an end. With 200 artists, 80 events, 20 venues, and more than 16,000 visitors in 60 days, we are enormously happy and grateful to see how the Biennial burned with love across the city. Guided by 'Melted for Love', we have explored the sounds of home – proposing practices of hospitality, togetherness, and ways of feeling (at) home. 💓 A huge THANK YOU to everyone who visited the Biennial – your presence, openness, and energy made this edition truly come alive. 💓 To all participating ARTISTS, we are deeply grateful for your powerful, generous, and inspiring contributions, and for trusting us with your work. 💓 We are deeply grateful to all participating LOCATIONS for opening their doors and collaborating with us. 💓 We extend our heartfelt thanks to our FUNDERS and PARTNERS for their continued enthusiasm and support. 💓 A special thank you to TEAM of freelance designers, technicians, and crews whose care and dedication shaped every detail behind the scenes. 💓 Of course, a huge shout out to our VOLUNTEERS, whose commitment, passion, and collaboration made this Biennial possible in every sense. Stay tuned for upcoming recordings of interviews, lectures, and performances, which will be shared soon. Subscribe to our monthly newsletter via the link in bio to stay up-to-date about our programme. Photos by Pieter Kers and Angelina Nikolayeva.

For two months, ‘Melted for Love’ moved through the city, exploring the sounds of home. We listened with open ears and full hearts, attuned to the sounds, songs, transmissions and resonances that hold us close to one another. 💓 This weekend is your last chance to experience the Biennial. Tickets and programme via the link in bio.