Biennial
exhibition-festival
22.10–16.11.2025
Edito
KorSonoR, a biennial exhibition-festival dedicated to sound and visual arts, explores sound in our environment, whether physical, social, memorial, technological, architectural or natural.
The exhibition-festival will feature performance-concerts, installations, sculptures, videos, films, residencies, discussions and collaborative projects.
The second edition of KorSonoR presents 17 artists, duos, or collectives—representing approximately 50 artists—with very diverse backgrounds, from 13 countries of origin and aged 30 to 87. It is being held in Geneva in collaboration with 16 partners (multipurpose venues, iconic architecture, museums, gardens, theaters, residences, cinemas, universities, labels, and artistic organizers).
This second edition is divided into two periods. In August, it offers two preambles, each set in a context that determines the orientation of the works. The relationship between sound and architecture guides a sound activation at the Pavillon Sicli, and the relationship between sound and nature is explored at the Botanical Garden (CJBG). In October, a satellite project in Venice will be presented in Venice. And in October-November, the exhibition-festival will be spread between Le Commun as the central building, the Fonderie Kugler as a second exhibition and concert space, the public space for a sound work in the public space, and seven other venues for one-off events.
Several collaborative projects attest to Arta Sperto’s interest in involving artists and partners in the construction of the KorSonoR program. In Dimitri de Perrot’s installation at Le Commun, Bongo Joe and the Geneva University of Music are invited to propose artists who will use an original device for a series of live sets. In the installation Multiverse of a Birdcage, authors Alexandre Joly and Daniel Zea bring together sound contributions from 29 musicians and invite four artists in residence to compose in, with, and for the installation. Ensemble Vide and KorSonoR are working together on a concert by the Valby Vocalgruppe collective, accompanied by visual projections by Francis Baudevin. A project by Jean-Luc Hervé is being carried out with Utopiana and the Musicology Unit of the University of Geneva. Two films by Marie Losier are co-programmed with the Cinémas du Grütli. Sound performances by Gilles Aubry and Ahmed Essyad are also part of the program of events for the Afrosonica exhibition at the Museum of Ethnography.
These collaborations, as well as projects hosted by other institutions, aim to bring together different types of audiences, develop elective affinities, and experiment with sound works in contexts that enrich their approaches and understandings.
Preamble 1
16 – 17.8 2025
Pavillon Sicli
LABOUR – Colin Hacklander & Farahnaz Hatam et invité·x·es
sound activations (impermanence and indeterminacy) is a new project by LABOUR that continues its exploration of sound and ritual. Following their recent works tower of silence (2024) and death levels us all (2024), this piece envisions death not as an end, but as a passage, an experience of crossing between different states of being.
In this work, the composers draw inspiration from ancient Zoroastrian death rituals, where music and chanting help guide the soul’s journey after death. Their composition combines voice, percussion, electronics, and two double basses. It revisits ideas they have been working on for years, such as shifting sound masses and the use of space itself as a musical element.
Here, they continue their long-term development of a format they call “sound activations”: an approach that explores architectural space through sound, often resulting in a sound journey where spectators move through a building, encountering a sequence of interconnected sound events composed of amplified and unamplified sources.
This project is designed specifically for Pavillon Sicli in Geneva. This concrete, glass, and metal building, constructed between 1966 and 1970 by architect Constantin Hilberer and engineer Heinz Isler to house a fire extinguisher factory, is now managed by the Pavillon Sicli Foundation, which is dedicated to building culture. Its curved shapes create a light and open acoustic environment where sound can move fluidly between spaces.
The audience moves through the building on a sound journey, encountering sound environments that unfold, shaped by a solo voice, solo percussion, two double basses, a choir, and electronic music.
Preamble 2
22 – 25.8 2025
Conservatoire et jardin botaniques Genève (CJBG)
Ensemble Batida
Walter de Maria/Lucas Niggli
Robin Meier Wiratunga
Julie Semoroz
KorSonoR explores the links between nature and sound creation through four events presented in the temperate greenhouse. The program consists of two very rare historical pieces, a recent composition, and two new works.
Cricket Music (1964) and Ocean Music (1968) are two pieces composed by Walter De Maria, a major figure in Land Art and minimal art. A drummer, De Maria played with famous musicians in the 1960s and created several minimalist sculptures that also have a sound dimension. His two compositions are also minimalist, and the recorded sounds of crickets and the ocean attest to an interest in repetitive and rhythmic musical motifs as well as in natural environments, terrain, water, and sky, which are central to his practice of “earth art,” notably in Lightning Field (1977). In 2024, Lucas Niggli reconstructed the recordings that accompany the drum score in each of these pieces.
The new composition MOTO – Études de mouvement (2025) by the Ensemble Batida is based on improvisation and a system of variations inspired by the development of organic root patterns, in this case the Roots System Drawings preserved at Wageningen University. The root drawings, of impressive beauty and precision, are like cartographies or organic scores that guide the musical movements of each performer and the ensemble.
The other two proposals are creations specifically designed for the context of KorSonoR at the CJBG. Robin Meier Wiratunga’s The Mind-Body Problem will take the form of a meeting with neuroscientist Sophie Schwartz, professor at the Center for Affective Science at the University of Geneva, on the observation of dreams in animals, which raises the question of animal consciousness. The artist will play live sounds to provide a more concrete introduction to this subject, which is as scientifically complex as it is stimulating to the imagination. In a second phase, the sound will be broadcast so that visitors can listen to it while reclining on deckchairs or strolling through the greenhouse.
With Phonosphère, Julie Semoroz aims to bring the greenhouse to life through sound, addressing her performance to the living beings present: plants, animals, and the human audience. This sensory experience, where nature and technology meet, will transform the space into a moving sound ecosystem composed of field recordings gathered by the artist around the world, voices, and electronics.
Satellite 1
9 – 26.10.2025
La Vetrina, Venice
Salômé Guillemin
La Vetrina, a private venue that exhibits Swiss artists in Venice, invited Arta Sperto to propose a project emblematic of the terrain explored by KorSonoR. Arta Sperto proposed Salômé Guillemin, with 50 Hertz, an installation and performance that will be presented during the Biennale Musica.
50 Hertz is a drone music performance composed of a set of neon lights and ceramics amplified by effects. The entirely analog device is based on the 50Hz buzz of household electricity: the electromagnetic radiation from the neon lights is captured by the ceramics, which produces interference on the sound signal and creates various modulations. The conductive and insulating properties of the clays and glazes used produce a raw sound material that can be shaped through a repertoire of gestures and contacts around the ceramics. Each artifact has its own repertoire of movements and sounds, allowing for different sound pieces to be created.
Exhibition-Festival
22.10 – 16.11.2025
Gilles Aubry + Ahmed Essyad
Matthieu Baumann
Dara String Festival x Chuchchepati Orchestra
Dimitri de Perrot and guests proposed by the HEM et par Bongo Joe
in partnership with the Musicology Unit of the University of Geneva
Alexandre Joly + Daniel Zea and guests: Olga Kokcharova, Sergei Leonov avec Vortex, Jiwon Seo,
Emma Souharce
Gabriela Löffel
Marie Losier
Marina Rosenfeld
Valby Vocalgruppe + Francis Baudevin
James Webb