Friday–Sunday 11am–6pm
Biennale Son – 1st edition
September 16 - October 29, 2023
Opening, September 16th
The 1st edition of the Biennale Son takes place in the heart of the Valais (Switzerland). It brings together over 70 artists and musicians at 17 venues in five towns and villages. Alongside a wide-reaching, multi-location exhibition, the public is invited to discover 27 performances and concerts, as well as an international symposium.
The Sound Biennial (Biennale Son) is an event designed to highlight the growing importance of sound in contemporary art. A multi-disciplinary undertaking, it seeks to blur the often too segmented lines between artistic disciplines that are closer than they seem. The Sound Biennial features installations, sculptural, two-dimensional, and text-based works, movies, as well as performances, concerts, and plays. It also includes works that induce sound in form or conception but are silent in essence.
Participants in the 1st edition of the Sound Biennial
Saâdane Afif (FR), Shatha Afify (EG), Natasha Anderson (AU), Micol Assaël (IT), Félicia Atkinson (FR), Alexandre Babel (CH), Barbezat/Villetard (CH/FR), Eric Baudelaire (FR), Francis Baudevin (CH), Dominique Blais (FR), Manon de Boer (BE), Céleste Boursier-Mougenot & Ariane Michel (FR), Ulla von Brandenburg (DE/FR), Gavin Bryars (UK), Valentin Carron (CH), Julian Charrière (CH), Antoine Chessex (CH), crys cole (CA), Clément Cogitore (FR), Axel Crettenand (CH), Alvin Curran (US), Marcelline Delbecq (FR), dianita (CH), Latifa Echakhch (CH/MA), Eastley - Butcher - Beresford (UK), Eklekto (CH), Chaos Clay (FR), Collectif Facteur (CH), Marino Formenti (IT), Claire Frachebourg (CH), Eva Frapiccini (IT), John Giorno (US), Isabelle Giovacchini (FR), Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster (FR), Romain Iannone (CH), Tom Johnson (US/FR), Judith Hamann & James Rushford (AU), Deborah-Joyce Holman (CH), David Horvitz (US), Kassel Jaeger aka François J. Bonnet (FR/CH), Dominique Koch (CH), Tobias Koch (CH), Rebecca Kressley (US), Nino Laisné (FR), Isabel Lewis (DO), Christian Marclay (CH/US), Augustin Maurs (FR), Haroon Mirza (UK), Angelica Mesiti (FR/AU), Adrien Missika (FR), Laura Morier-Genoud (CH), Max Neuhaus (US), Camille Norment & David Toop (NO-US/UK), Agus Nur Amal (ID), Katie Paterson (UK), Hannah Rickards (UK), Marina Rosenfeld (US), Sébastien Roux (FR), Anri Sala (AL/FR), Shimabuku (JP), Roman Signer (CH), Georgina Starr (UK), Catherine Sullivan (US), The Young Gods & Musique de Landwehr Fribourg (CH), Dafne Vicente-Sandoval & Charles Curtis (US/FR), Whirled Music (UK)
The curators of the 1st edition of the Biennale Son
Jean-Paul Felley, curator and director of the Sound Biennial and EDHEA
Christophe Fellay, artist, composer and researcher. Head of the Sound Department at EDHEA
Luc Meier, curator, director of La Becque | Artist Residency
Sylvie Zavatta, director of FRAC Franche-Comté for the exhibition Echos d’une collection - works by FRAC Franche-Comté
Venues for the 1st edition of the Biennale Son
The town of Sion has been chosen as the capital of this first edition. The nerve center of the Sound Biennial is La Centrale, a vast disused hydroelectrical power plant.Beyond this emblematic building, the Sound Biennial branches out into the Ferme-Asile, a multi-disciplinary arts center, the Musée d’art du Valais, the Eglise des Jésuites, the Théâtre Le Spot, as well as the Valère Basilica and Tourbillon Castle which, like sentinels, dominate the town. In Martigny, the Sound Biennial has set up in six venues - the Manoir de la ville de Martigny, the Sound Museum, the Louis Moret Foundation, the Valais Media Library, the Grange à Emile and the Saint-Michel Chapel in Martigny-Bourg - where it presents a selection of works drawn from the rich collection of the FRAC Franche-Comténder the title Echos d’une collection - œuvres du FRAC Franche-Comté and curated by Sylvie Zavatta. In addition,the Sound Biennal is also present at the Théâtre Les Halles in Sierre, at the Musée valaisan des Bisses in Botyre, and at the Edouard Vallet Foundation in Vercorin.