School of Listening Differently
22. 7. – 30. 8. 24

School of Listening Differently is part of School of Listening, a public programme developed especially for the Salzburg International Summer Academy of Fine Arts. Inspired by the School of Seeing founded by Oskar Kokoschka in 1953, the School of Listening emphasizes the role of the human voice and serves as an invitation to listen differently. It probes the capacity of listening to embody conflictuality, amplify silenced narratives and challenge simplistic perspectives on identity.

The programme is a call to come together in performative and participatory frameworks, questioning the invisible borders that weave between us and define us. It is a platform to participate but also to refuse, to speak, to listen or to be silent; to collaborate or to co-resist; to temporarily (de)construct and rehearse non-homogeneous, disharmonious communities of possible dissensus; to be together as a form of negotiating differences.

School of Listening Differently is an exhibition and a series of events, staging performative conversations and discursive performances that stretch the boundaries of the body and the voice and turn listening into a somatic experience. The gap between what is seen and what is heard is navigated, in order to listen to what we cannot see and to imagine what seems to be beyond our reach. The works imply the dual potentialities of the voice and the body – to be governed and controlled, as well as to subvert and undermine forms of governing. Entangled between the personal and the collective as well the artistic, activist and academic, it embodies a fragile and differentiated collectivity, where listening can become a form of resistance to oppression.

In this current moment of political turmoil, violence, fear and silencing seem to dominate the discourse, and identity positioning is usually perceived as a coherent and absolute stand, staged in opposition to others. School of Listening is interested in making room for challenging and complex conversations, where unequal power relations are being accentuated, and silenced narratives are resonated. At the same time, it wishes to invite a potential subversion of hegemonic power struggles by embracing conflictuality as a vehicle for transformation. Thus, the programme is an invitation to take part in a temporary community that revolves around co-resistance rather than co-existence – a resistance to violence, to dehumanization and silencing and a platform to co-developing new empathic ways of listening.

Curated by Maayan Sheleff