Sonic Investigations is an immersive and radical proposition for the Luxembourg Pavilion at the Venice Biennale 2025 by the architects Valentin Bansac, Alice Loumeau and Mike Fritsch, that explores the role of sound in our perception of physical spaces. In our contemporary societies, so saturated with images, sight seems to eclipse the other senses. Yet these are essential to fully grasping the invisible dynamics that shape our sensitive relationship with territories.
Like John Cage's silent work 4:33, Sonic Investigations invites us to close our eyes and listen actively. As a counterpoint to the hegemony of images, listening becomes a political act, opening up new possibilities for exploring built and natural environments, shifting our attention and giving voice to the more-than-human.
Through attentive listening and field recordings, which capture a range of sounds from diverse environments, Sonic Investigations offers an embodied experience of space. The project represents an opportunity to imagine new perspectives and bring a multisensory approach to architectural and spatial practices.
"Sonic Investigations" in the Luxembourg Pavilion at the Venice Biennale. Photograph by Valentin Bansac.
A research project that is both practical and theoretical, the project is a means of examining Luxembourg's dense territory—a significant case study for global paradigms in spatial planning, where the sounds of biological, geological, and anthropogenic entities blend into the complex soundscape of the Anthropocene. How can we reveal the entangled nature of contemporary situations specific to Luxembourg?
Sonic Investigations constructs new narratives and describes the territory beyond anthropocentric perspectives. By revealing the auditory dynamics of these infrastructure-strewn landscapes, the pavilion offers an immersive space to give voice to the invisible. The approach draws on concepts such as Murray Schafer's Acoustic Ecology2 from the 1960s and Steve Goodman's Sound Wars3, in which sound serves as a point of tension and brings out new ways of perceiving space and meeting the challenges of a rapidly changing environment.
"Sonic Investigations" in the Luxembourg Pavilion at the Venice Biennale. Photograph by Valentin Bansac.
Sound Piece
At the heart of the pavilion unfolds a sound piece, developed by the artist Ludwig Berger. The composition incorporates sound recordings from several Luxembourg sites. Listeners are then encouraged to explore the space through a new auditory perspective. These site-specific works are the result of meetings and visits with local specialists from numerous disciplines, including ecology, social sciences, engineering, history, and data science.
By focusing on field recordings from multiple perspectives, the work critically examines the dynamics of Luxembourg's territory and investigates how the development of renewable energies and current digital infrastructures are shaping its landscape.
"Sonic Investigations" in the Luxembourg Pavilion at the Venice Biennale. Photograph by Valentin Bansac.
The use of sound as a tool for spatial and territorial analysis allows the project to offer an innovative framework for understanding urban and extra-urban contexts; This calls into question conventional approaches to spatial planning, as well as the hierarchical relationships and limitations they impose. The concept of Ecotone—a transitional space between two ecosystems—guides the recording process, exploring liminal spaces and the impact of human intervention on the environment.
A multiplicity of voices is present in the sound piece, from the hum of data centers to the silence that symbolizes the loss of biodiversity. Added to this is the description of energy production infrastructure, the architecture of digital technologies, and forests, conceived as spaces of exchange. The composition highlights the coexistence of complex networks and blurs the boundaries between the human and the non-human, the natural and the artificial, the local and the global. It gives voice to invisible entities and neglected systems. For media theorist Shannon Mattern, the complex opacity of the logistical infrastructure "offers an opportunity for another mode of representation and investigation: listening [...] for a more intimate engagement with these same systems."
"Sonic Investigations" in the Luxembourg Pavilion at the Venice Biennale. Photograph by Valentin Bansac.
Exhibition
Inspired by Bernhard Leitner's research on Sound Spaces, the pavilion offers an immersive environment where visitors are transported into a sonic experience, removed from the abundance of images. As ordinary as listening may seem, focusing solely on sound thus becomes an unsettling experience.
Sonic Investigations presents a collection of original content, including a sound piece, texts, and field documentation. The project's objective is to use the context of the Venice Biennale as a platform to generate knowledge rather than physical content. With this in mind, the pavilion's scenography is designed as a minimal intervention. It develops an ideal acoustic environment to present the soundscapes recorded in Luxembourg. The construction of the scenography is eco-responsible, focusing on the rental, reuse, recycling, and repurposing of materials. Standard construction elements will be minimally altered to facilitate their reimplementation within circular systems.
Before entering the pavilion, a loudspeaker arouses the listeners' curiosity. Upon exiting the sound space, visitors enter a "making-of" area, which provides an overview of the project's methodology. This space offers the opportunity to explore the creation of the sound piece through images, documents from field recordings, and specific references.
