The Listening Biennial 2023: Art that you can hear and feel

The month-long Biennial is a unique auditory/multi-sensory experience to be held at UP-Diliman and simultaneously in different countries.

July 7, 2023

“Wander” by participating artist Kean Barrameda for the “there is no sound artist, just sound art” exhibit component of The Listening Biennial at the UP Fine Arts Gallery. “Wander” is an art installation inviting viewers to explore the modern human experience through movements and sounds of transistor radios, prompting reflection on information overload, maintaining focus, and connection in our fast-paced world.

We go to museums and galleries to see art, but how about going out to hear art? To hear, or rather, listen to art, head to The Listening Biennial 2023 and its various exhibits and activities from July 8 to August 11 at the University of the Philippines-Diliman to experience sound art and more.

The Listening Biennial, the second one since its initial launch in 2021 and the first to be held in the Philippines, brings together Filipino and international artists who use sound as an art medium. The Biennial is a cross-disciplinal, international festival that focuses on creative avenues for listening. It features music, but it is not just limited to music; it also includes experimental noise, acoustic storytelling, ASMR, and other auditory installations and dialogues that play on the power of listening.

(Left) Brian Labelle, founding director of The Listening Biennial, and (right) Dr. Dayang Yraola, curator of The Listening Biennial 2023 Asia Program.

Founded by Brandon LaBelle, a Berlin-based artist and a foremost scholar in Sound and Media Studies, The Listening Biennial “…draws attention to listening as a relational capacity, a philosophical and political proposition, a creative practice, and research framework,” as described in its official website. The second edition of the Biennial in Manila is curated by Dr. Dayang Yraola, an associate professor at the University of the Philippines-College of Fine Arts and the curator of the PAROLA-UP Fine Arts Gallery; UP is the main host of the Asia leg.

PAROLA – UP Fine Arts Gallery at the University of the Philippines – Diliman is the venue for the exhibition component of THE LISTENING BIENNIAL 2023. Two exhibits, namely “use your ears” and “there is no sound artist, just sound art”. The exhibits will run from July 8 to August 11, 2023.

“Use your Ears” in this UP Fine Arts Gallery exhibit

Immerse yourself in sound at the exhibition component of The Listening Biennial 2023 Asia program at the PAROLA-UP Fine Arts Gallery starting July 8, Saturday, from 11am to 3pm. The launch opens with a sound bath by Anjeline de Dios, a performance from the art collective Elemento, and a walkthrough of the exhibit with the participating artists and curator.

The first part of the exhibit at the Ground Floor Lobby of Parola is “use your ears”, which is a playful take on the old Filipino adage “Mata kasi ang gamitin, hindi bibig!” (“Look with your eyes, not your mouth!”). It is a listening exhibit that features the works of 25 artists from different regions selected by the Biennial’s five curators LaBelle, Rayya Badran (Lebanon), Guely Morato (Bolivia), Luisa Santos (Portugal), and Yraola. In various locations throughout the building are the second and third parts of the exhibit titled “there is no sound artist, just sound art”. These feature sound installation works from 19 Philippine-based artists, as well as a restaging of “Sandata” by Lirio Salvador, and “Atang, a Sound Prayer” from last year’s UP Diliman Arts and Culture Festival. (For a complete list of the artists, please see the end of this release.)

Initial meeting last April 22, 2023 with the artists participating in the exhibit component “there is no sound artist, just sound art” at the PAROLA – UP Fine Arts Gallery.

In her curatorial statement, Yraola explains that “…this present exhibit proposes however that in the case of sound art, that sound art or sound ‘artness’ does not necessarily only come from sound artists…This claim is not a paradox but an illustration of the Manila art scene particularly pertaining to its participation in the discourse of sound art.”

Hang out at the Listening Tambayan and attend a “Neverending” Gig!

If you want to literally “hang out” with sound art, there is the Listening Tambayan, another component of The Listening Biennial. The program, which focuses on the community and is a means to listen collectively, will feature 15- to 40-minute live sessions by guest practitioners recorded live and with a select audience at the College of Mass Communications Auditorium in UP Diliman.

These sessions will then be aired on DZUP, the official AM radio station of the campus, or you could listen and watch it on DZUP’s Facebook page and YouTube channel. Depending on the guest or resource person, each session may include music, as well as soundscape recording, narration, or storytelling, and even news. The Listening Tambayan schedule will air on July 10, 11, and 12 with morning (9am to 12pm) and afternoon (2 to 5pm) sessions.

Artists in the exhibit “there is no sound artist, just sound art”: Tad Ermitaño, Datu Arellano and Ian Carlo Jaucian.

Highlighting the Listening Tambayan is the neverending gig that will be held to celebrate World Listening Day on July 18. Catch this event at the University Hotel within the UP Campus, and revel in the 60 performances that will start at 12 noon and end at midnight.

To cap the program, symposiums will be hosted locally and in other participating countries; including “Bauhaus A Listening Workshop” in Sagada, Mountain Province, supported by the Goethe Institut Philippines plus a Sound Camp (by invitation only) at Barangay Halang, Cavite, from July 14 to 16.

In general, The Listening Biennial and its programs aim to take “the art of listening” one step further, and we are all ears.

Visit the Listening Biennial 2023 Asia Program exhibit at PAROLA-UP Fine Arts Gallery from July 8 to August 11 from 9am to 4pm, Tuesdays to Saturdays at the UP-College of Fine Arts, Jacinto St., Quezon City. For more information about the Listening Biennial and its activities or to pre-register for the UP Fine Arts Gallery, you may email cfagallery.upd@up.edu.ph. If you wish to observe The Sound Camp, you may email dayang.folio@gmail.com.