Opening: Sonic Acts Biennial – Melted for Love
Join us for the opening of the Sonic Acts Biennial 2026 exhibition Melted for Love, a three-chapter showcase unfolding across W139, Arti et Amicitiae and Rozenstraat in Amsterdam on 6, 7 and 8 February. With free entry, a buzzing bar, and special opening performances, the gallery stays open late – turning the evening into a lively meeting place for anyone interested in sound and art at the intersection of technology and ecology.
The exhibition at W139 focuses on how ecosystems absorb the pressures of militarisation, colonial occupation, and environmental disruption. The artworks follow different types of signals – such as sound waves, vibrations, radio transmissions, and ecological changes – as they move across landscapes, through subsurface networks, and throughout the more-than-human world.
ProgrammeDoors: 18:00Opening event: 19:00-22:00
The evening features a performance by Music Research Strategies (Marshall Trammell) Pedagogy of the Surveilled: Listen Like Wolves. Conceived as a set of actions for performer and percussionist together with an ‘Active Listening’ Conduction Ensemble, Listen Like Wolves mobilises collective attention as a creative and affective force.
The exhibition includes world premiering works by Diana Policarpo and Bernardo Gaeiras, speculating on future uses of the former Bugio Lighthouse through radiophonic transmissions. Alina Schmuch – a participant in ALTERLIFE, Sonic Acts’ major international research and residency programme with Rupert, Vilnius – examines manipulated water systems shaped by drought and rising sea levels. You will also find new work by Lower Levant Company together with Olga Micińska, who combine bat calls, broadcasting, and encrypted messages to reflect the ecological catastrophes wrought by colonial warfare in the Eastern Mediterranean. Adelita Husni-Bey restages Italian fascist archives, exposing damaged infrastructures and extractivist legacies in Libya. Maeve Brennan explores the depths of a salt mine to question the violent writing and preservation of Western imperial power.
