Valentin Bansac, Mike Fritsch and Alice Loumeau: Sonic Investigations

Sonic Investigations, a project by Valentin Bansac, Mike Fritsch and Alice Loumeau, has been unanimously selected by an international jury to represent the Luxembourg Pavilion at the 19th International Venice Architecture Biennale.

The Pavilion
Sonic Investigations is an immersive, joyful and radical invitation to shift focus from the visual to the sonic. In our image-saturated contemporary society, sight often eclipses other senses which are vital to understanding the unseen dynamics of our sensory relationship with environments. Inspired by John Cage’s silent song 4’33’’, Sonic Investigations invites us to close our eyes and actively listen. As a counter-project to the hegemony of images, the act of listening opens up new possibilities for exploring both built and natural environments and to move our attention towards giving voices to more-than-human agencies.

As both a practical and theoretical investigation, the project serves as a tool to re-explore the dense territory of Luxembourg. The sounds of the region emanating from biological, geological and anthropogenic beings blend into the intertwined soundscape of the Anthropocene and lead to the question: How is it possible to reveal the entangled character of specific contemporary situations in Luxembourg? Through attentive listening and field recordings that capture a range of sounds from diverse environments, Sonic Investigations creates a new, uncanny and embodied experience of space that reveals more than what meets the eye, while emphasising the value of sensorial approaches in spatial practices. 

Meet the team
Valentin Bansac is an architect, researcher and photographer from France. He previously worked at OMA/AMO with Rem Koolhaas where he participated in Countryside, the future, a research and exhibition project at Guggenheim New York. Valentin graduated from the Experimentation in Arts and Politics Master’s led by Bruno Latour at the Paris Institute of Political Studies (Sciences Po). He is currently involved in the two-year research programme, Domesticated Foodscapes, at EPFL (École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne), and recently participated in Organismo: Art in Applied Critical Ecologies, an initiative facilitated by TBA21 Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary, an international art and advocacy foundation based in Madrid.

Mike Fritsch is a Luxembourgish architect, urbanist and educator working between Luxembourg and France. A practising architect, Mike spent several years with OMA in Rotterdam and now oscillates between large-scale transformation strategies and architectural repairs, including collaborations with l’AUC in Paris. Mike teaches at ENSA-M (École nationale supérieure d’architecture de Marseille), where he manipulates new territorial narratives on the “already there”, through adaptations and social interactions.

Alice Loumeau is a French-Canadian architect, researcher and cartographer. She conducts multimedia spatial investigations through writing and cartography, exploring the transformation of territories of the Anthropocene. Alice graduated from the Experimentation in Arts and Politics Master’s led by Bruno Latour at the Paris Institute of Political Studies (Sciences Po). She has worked as an architect in Rotterdam at l’AUC and UR in Paris and Matheson Whiteley in London, and participates in exhibitions, publications and residencies. In the fall of 2024, Alice took part in a residency at the Villa Albertine in Texas, USA.

In 2022, Alice and Valentin co-initiated MATTERS.xyz, a tentacular collective endeavour that explores new territorial narratives through interdisciplinary alliances and multimedia projects. 

The jury
Maribel Casas, Director, luca—Luxembourg Center for Architecture;
Michelle Friederici, President, Ordre des Architectes et des Ingénieurs conseils Luxembourg;
Claudine Hemmer, Visual Arts and Architecture Advisor, Ministry of Culture Luxembourg;
Marija Marić, Curator of the Luxembourg Pavilion 2023;
Eléonore Mialonier, Project Manager Architecture/Design/Crafts, Kultur | lx—Arts Council Luxembourg;
Marion Waller, General Director, Pavillon de l’Arsenal, Paris;
Nemanja Zimonjić, Ten Studio, Zürich/Belgrade.

Commissioner appointed by the Ministry of Culture Luxembourg: Kultur | lx—Arts Council Luxembourg