The Sonic Acts Biennial presents: “Gesture and Screech” at OCCII
The Sonic Acts Biennial, taking place 5 February – 29 March 2026 in Amsterdam, unfolds across multiple venues (OCCII a.o.) and curatorial frameworks. At its centre is the Biennial’s main exhibition Melted for Love, spanning W139, Arti et Amicitiae, and Rozenstraat, accompanied by a satellite exhibition at Het Documentaire Paviljoen / IDFA Institute and a special collaboration with Framer Framed. Alongside the exhibition programme, the Biennial will host an extensive programme of film screenings, artist talks and exhibition tours, which will be announced in full on 16 December. >> https://sonicacts.com/biennial/biennial-2026
Amsterdam, 11-12-2025
Sonic Acts is thrilled to share the final 70 artists joining the 2026 Biennial, Melted for Love! With this last wave of names, the programme now comes fully into view – a vibrant, resonant field of practices spanning sound, art, and collective listening. With just two months to go, we eagerly look forward to welcoming audiences to an Amsterdam-wide gathering: a convergence of voices, ideas, and shared intensities all over the city.
The Listening Room exhibition, developed in dialogue with the Musical Research Group of the French National Audiovisual Institute, INA GRM, brings together newly confirmed artists such as Tomoko Sauvage, Jana Irmert, François J. Bonnet, Olivia Block, and Maria W Horn, alongside Daniel M Karlsson, Jules Négrier, Miodrag Gladović, and Michèle Bokanowski. Across these works, spatial composition, acousmatic listening, and extended resonances shape an environment where sound is encountered as architecture, memory, and physical presence.
The six-hour Expanded Experience programme at Muziekgebouw is completed with Paul Jebanasam, Pierce Warnecke, and Matthew Biederman developing large-scale audiovisual works that operate at the intersection of sound, computation, and environmental imagination, unfolding through immersive spatial and temporal systems.
Among additions to the Biennial’s live concerts, at OCCII, the high-octane concert night Gesture and Screech brings together Jiyoung Wi, Tzu Ni, Finlay Shakespeare, Roc Jiménez de Cisneros, Scott Gordon, and Petronn Sphene. At the Oude Kerk, Allan Gilbert Balon performs at the fantastic early-morning Silence programme.
The Biennial’s two club nights set the line-up into full ignition. During the festival weekend, a dusk-until-dawn showcase at Garage Noord hosts live performances and DJ sets centred on voice-driven practices. The night features Nick Klein, a collaboration between DJ DIE SOON and Rully Shabara of Senyawa, Jokkoo Collective, and performances by LINTD and Porter Brook, with Bergsonist leading a high-intensity run on the decks. On the Biennial’s opening weekend, we celebrate at Bar San Francisco with Lucia Kagramanyan, Honey Jazz, and Mayss.
Across the exhibition at W139, Arti et Amicitiae, and Rozenstraat, the programme is completed with newly confirmed performing and exhibiting artists such as Christian Nyampeta & Kivu Ruhorahoza, Haig Aivazian, Marshall Trammell, Urok Shirhan, and Nikolay Karabinovych. Working across installation, performance, sound, moving image, and research, their contributions extend the Biennial’s reflection on home, displacement, political imagination, and embodied presence.
At Framer Framed, Between Fires: Irradiated Imaginations and Anti-Nuclear Solidarities – an exhibition curated by Fabienne Rachmadiev in collaboration with Sonic Acts – brings together Asel Kadyrkhanova, Almagul Menlibayeva, Kamila Narysheva, Vicky Clarke, Dilyara Kaipova, Aigerim Seitenova, Maïa Tellit Hawad, Yeon Sung, Aziza Kadyri, and Emilija Škarnulytë, alongside many others, tracing the intertwined histories of nuclear infrastructures, colonialism and resistance.
→ Full programme details and final event information will be released on 16 December. A limited number of tickets is already available on the website.
