“To change life, we must first change space” – Henri Lefebvre
„Listening is selecting and interpreting and acting and making decisions.“ – Pauline Oliveros

 

Listening to the voice.
Listening to the stones and the city.
Listening to the history and to the mythology.
Listening to the environment.
Listening to each other.
Do we all hear the same when we listening?

Tuned City’s previous milestones Berlin 2008, Tallinn 2011, and Brussels 2013 used to take place in central European metropolises. This year, Tuned City visits Ancient Messene June 1st – 3rd and seeks out the exemplary ‘ideal city’, the ancient Greek polis.

‘The urban landscape of Messene was constructed in the Early Hellenistic era, according to certain architectural and town-planning principles of spatial organization, which reflected the political and social values of the period applied to the demands of this programmatic city founded by the Thebans in 369 B.C. on the south slopes of mount Ithome. The city was famous for its mighty fortification walls, the monumentality of its public buildings and the Hippodamian town-plan. The cityscape preserves evidence related to its successive constructional phases in the course of time from the 4th century BC to the 14th AD. The character of the landscape is defined and transformed by human activities and ideologies; it is a cultural product subject to constant re-interpretation.’  – Petros Themelis, director of the excavations

The archaeological site and active excavation with all it’s layers of history is the ideal place to reflect about ‘city as a construct‘ and explore the sensual aspects of space as well as social and political dimensions of the city.

What do we project on a site like this? How do we trace and preserve history and how does this shape contemporary and future culture identities? What lays underneath and in between the monumentalized obvious findings? How can we decode sedimented memories? What is the difference between local and distant, past and present modes of memory? How can we access or activate different modes of perception?

Listening seems passive, but it is an activity, a ‘silent production’, involving translation, decoding, abstraction, improvisation, the use of memory to recognize and connect elements from other things heard, subconscious filtering… The acoustic world surrounds us like the fabric of architecture in an urban city environment. Listening is a constant interaction.
Under this particular contingency, sound suggests a form of negotiation, listening partakes action, and hearing is always more than a simple perceiving of sound by the ear. With a focus on hearing’s emplacement and the pronounced situatedness of listening, Tuned City explores the ways in which oscillations enact a sense of place that also senses us back.
Each day of the proceedings will be focused around a central theme with the following provisional titles: Listening Politics, Media Matter, Spectral Ambience

Sound artists, performers and researchers meet for two weeks in the ancient place to establish a dialogue between the ruins that once hosted a vibrant city to be inspired by it’s conception and history, traces and findings and the special atmosphere. Questioning it’s proper function, and the different definitions of what an ideal city was and should be, the works range from sound installations, walks, lectures, concerts and participatory events.
Tuned City is going to listen underneath the surface and in between the obvious findings. In a weekend long event, the ancient Greek city of Messene will be transformed in to a vast platform for artistic production and presentation, discussion and intermediation of sound art and music in public spaces through a variety of site specific formats in a direct interrelation with the local context and a vital exchange with a local and international audience.

The invited artist will all present new commissioned works, among the confirmed artist and researchers are:

Petros G.Themelis (GR) / Savina Yannatou (GR) / Dimitris Tigkas (GR) / AGF – Antye Greie Ripatti (DE/FI) / Kate Lacey (UK) / Jannis Kozatsas (GR) / Kosmas Koteas (GR) / Justin Bennett + Roelf Toxopeus – BMB con (NL) / noid (AT) / Gilles Aubry (CH/DE) / Nathalie Mba Bikoro (GA) / Lucia Farinati (IT) / Hanna Hartman (SE/DE) / Dimitris Plantzos (GR) / Shannon Mattern (US) / Caitlin De Silvey (GB) / Douglas Kahn (AUS) / Eric Lewis (CA) / John Grzinich (US/EST) / Jens Brand (DE) / Raviv Ganchrow (US/IL/NL) / Els Viaene (BE) / Mario de Vega (MX) / Yann Leguay (BE) / Maria Papadomanolaki (GR/GB) / Michael Gallagher (GB) / Will Schrimshaw (GB) / Aggeliki Poulou (GR) / Marinos Koutsomichalis (GR) / Cevdet Erek (TR) / Steve Bates (CA) / ILIOS (GR) / Nikos Veliotis (GR) / Martin Howse (UK/D) + Jamie Allen (CA) shiftregister / Paul Gründorfer (AT) / Marc-Alexandre Reinhardt & Eric Mattson (CA) / Vicky Bisbiki (GR) / Alexandros Drymonitis (GR) / Panos Amelides (GR) / Eleni Kavouki (GR) / Andreas Töpfer (DE) / Yiorgis Sakellariou (GR) / Stelios Giannoulakis (GR) / Rene Rissland (D) / Florian Tuercke (D) / Franziska Windisch (D) / Fernando Godoy (CL) / Nicolas Spencer (CL) / Christian Espinoza (CL) / Barbara Gonzales (CL) / Pablo Saavedra Arevalo (CL) and many more …

Check (almost) the full program here >>>

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Tuned City | Ancient Messene is organized in the framework of the INTERFACES project with the support of the Onassis Cultural Centre – Athens (OCC) and the Creative Europe Programme of the European Union.
Interfaces is an international, interdisciplinary project focusing on bringing new music to an extensive range of new audiences. With the support of the Creative Europe Programme, Interfaces unites nine diverse partners from the UK, Germany, France, Cyprus, Belgium, Romania, Austria and Greece with main objective to explore innovative ways of introducing audiences to the work of cutting-edge musicians and sound artists and engage new audiences of all ages to the music of our time.
http://www.interfacesnetwork.eu/