Listening with Infrasonica. An exploration through their archive, with the editors, thinking about sound and silence.
In December 2022, Bajo el Sol invited the Institute for Postnatural Studies to curate an exhibition entitled at Travesía Cuatro’s gallery space in Mexico City. The exhibition, titled “Ser Montaña, traversed three artistic and curatorial practices to address the voice that territory acquires in the face of processes of dispossession, against colonization or in the face of the violence of extractivism. Sound, the guiding thread of the exhibition and of this chapter, gives voice to the hill, answers the warning of the bird (Serinus Canaria) through its song -or its silence-, and explores the relationship between the perceptible and the material. Ecology is thus linked to the audible, to the hidden and the sensitive, including frequencies undetectable to human ears, such as the movement of tectonic plates, to narratives and life, configuring a complex landscape of interdependent relationships. Listening is placed at the center of the exhibition as a radical ecological and artistic practice, recovering the echoes of the landscapes of a wounded planet in order to think of new ways of cohabiting its territories.
Chapter 6 of Bajo el Sol took place within the framework of “Ser Montaña”: A conversation between the Institute for Postnatural Studies and Infrasonica, where sound is used as a detonator and catalyst of knowledge beyond western tradition. The conversation explores the decolonizing of listening and the possibility of understanding different layers of geographical, social, and experiential complexity through soundscapes.
Thanks to the Institute for Postnatural Studies: Gabriel Alonso, Karol Muñozcano and Infrasonica: Pablo José Ramírez, Eloisa Travaglini & Sam Simon
Reven Chacon, Singing Toward The Wind Now / Singing Toward The Sun Now (2012), installation view. Courtesy of the artist.
Infrasonica is a digital platform of non-Western cultures. We record, analyze and debate the eeriness of sound and its auras, linked to the world with the audible, the hidden and the sensitive. Infrasonic waves operate at a frequency that is undetectable by human ears even though they are often generated by massive ecological phenomena, such as the movement of tectonic plates or the deep currents of the ocean. Infrasonica aims to be a catalyst for those vibrations.
The platform includes archives of experimental sound and visual artists, as well as theoretical musings on contemporary critical thought. By relying on a borderless network of collaborators, Infrasonica blends essays, conversations and speculative works that encourage critical curatorial and research projects.
The Institute for Postnatural Studies is a center for artistic experimentation from which to explore and problematize postnature as a framework for contemporary creation. Founded in 2020, it is conceived as a platform for critical thinking, a network that brings together artists and researchers concerned about the issues of the global ecological crisis through experimental formats of exchange and the production of open knowledge. From a multidisciplinary approach, the Institute develops long-term research focused on issues such as ecology, coexistence, politics, and territories. These lines of investigation take different shapes and formats, including seminars, exhibitions, and residencies as spaces for academic and artistic experimentation.
The Institute for Postnatural Studies works at the intersection between Spain and international practices and debates. From its headquarters in Madrid, a 300m² warehouse with a workshop, residency spaces, and shared workspaces, invites artists, researchers, and cultural agents to create dialogues with alumni and the broader public.
BAJO EL SOL is a project by Travesía Cuatro | Coordinated by Claudia Llanza and Andrea Celda