Sonic Acts 2022
W139, along with two other venues, Zone2Source and Het HEM, is hosting the Sonic Acts Biennial exhibition one sun after another between Sept. 30 and Oct. 23, 2022. Departing from the long-running Sonic Acts research on pollution, the exhibition focuses on the inextricable links between pollution and time. Pollution is a process that usually manifests itself long after it has begun and often in indirect ways.
one sun after another touches on deep, real and geological time, embraces nonlinearity, fluctuation and porosity, and makes room for leaks. The image of the sun – as a sign of hope, glowing without burning, imbued with warmth – feeds the imagination and brings forth life.
Contemplating multiple incarnations of time, one sun after another listens to an immersive aerial choir of bees, follows a microbe embedded within lithium traveling from a Chilean mine to a digital device, and plunges into deep time through lead-encased nuclear coconuts from the Bikini Atoll. Artistic research traces the lineages of exhaust produced by oil and other extractive economies, while in other places it speculates over Greenland’s mineral deposits, now made accessible by melting ice. In the Canadian Arctic, visual narratives on monumental ice walls come and go with tidal movements, soundtracked by a cacophony of environmental field recordings. Against the din, visitors are welcome to a joyful meditation about presence, sensing and bending time, before drifting downstream, where the exhibition stretches time even further. Diving under, performative and installative artworks explore toxic cycles of water and stretch inner time with hybrid instruments and sub-aquatic amplification.
Taking place throughout October 2022, the Sonic Acts Biennial takes place across various locations, interweaving exhibition openings, performances and lectures. These are accompanied by in/outdoor sound installations, artist presentations, workshops, excursions and other activities.
Sonic Acts Biennial 2022 is generously supported by Stimuleringsfonds Creatieve Industrie, Amsterdam Fonds voor de Kunst, Mondriaan Fonds, Fonds 21, Prins Bernhard Cultuurfonds, Fonds voor Podiumkunsten, Paradiso, W139, Het HEM, Likeminds, OT301, Zone2Source, and Singelkerk. Co-supported by the European Union’s Erasmus+ program.
Photography by Elodie Vreeburg en George Knegtel.
