To listen is to be at the encounter with an other. Art Exhibition

To listen is to be at the encounter with an other A gathering of sonic Counter-Cartographies Artists: Ale Borea, Kika Echeverría, Javier Vargas, Eli Wewentxu Curated by: Helga Elsner Torres, Pablo Santacana López, Vicente Barriga About About the exhibition What does it mean to listen to someone, somewhere, or something that dominant narratives have rendered inaudible? To listen is to encounter an other , bringing together four artistic practices connected to Latin America to explore listening as a political gesture and a way of engaging with migration, memory, territory, and resistance. Through sound installations, sculptural interventions, archival recordings, and experimental forms of transmission, the exhibition questions the structures that determine which voices are heard, which histories are preserved, and which experiences remain at the margins of collective attention. In a city like Berlin, where migration continuously reshapes cultural and social life, listening becomes more than a sensory experience. It becomes a way to acknowledge others’ presence, engage with histories of displacement, and confront the systems that distinguish signal from noise, belonging from exclusion. The exhibition approaches sound as an autonomous form of knowledge, capable of holding experiences that visual and textual representations often leave behind. Four artistic practices propose distinct ways of listening. Ale Borea examines listening as surveillance, tracing the relationship between military technologies, personal archives, and information classification. Kika Echeverría activates the sonic memory of Chilean exile through archival radio transmissions and repurposed antennas. Javier Vargas explores the intimate relationship between sound, mechanical movement, absence, and remembrance. Eli Wewentxu brings forward the sounds of Wallmapu, where environmental transformations and Indigenous resistance are registered through the act of listening. Together, these works challenge Eurocentric regimes of attention and propose alternative sonic cartographies shaped by displacement, colonial histories, ecological struggles, and diasporic memory. Rather than treating noise as interference, the exhibition understands it as an essential condition of encounter. Listening is not necessarily an act of understanding or agreement. It is an openness to difference, friction, and the possibility of being transformed by what we hear. To listen is to be at the encounter with an other , inviting visitors to reconsider listening not as passive reception, but as an active, situated, and profoundly political practice. Exhibited works Ale Borea — Listening Post Three short-range FM transmissions, radio receiver, headphones, and archival documents. Listening Post investigates the infrastructures of surveillance that determine what becomes recognisable as information and what is dismissed as noise. Drawing from the personal archive of the artist’s grandfather, who worked in radar and telecommunications for the Peruvian Armed Forces, Borea examines listening as an instrument of detection, classification, and control. Ale Borea is a Berlin-based Peruvian sound artist and drummer whose practice draws on Andean and Afro-Peruvian traditions, exploring rhythm as embodied resistance and the body as an archive of migration and collective memory. Instagram · Website Kika Echeverría — Tiny dots began to emerge Sound installation with antennas and speakers. Kika Echeverría is a Berlin-based Chilean artist and anthropologist. Her practice moves between sound, memory and archival research, exploring the political dimensions of aural phenomena from a speculative perspective. She develops installations, texts, and collaborations with artists and diverse communities. Instagram · Website Javier Vargas — I hear your steps from my room Sound sculpture and mixed-media installation. Vargas presents a sculptural triptych combining painting, experimental speakers, and a kinetic instrument. Through mechanical movement, sustained musical notes, and evocative imagery, the work explores the sounds that emerge from memory, isolation, and absence. Javier Vargas, also known as P0brediabla, is a Berlin-based Chilean artist, psychologist, and multi-instrumentalist. His practice brings together sound sculpture, experimental electronics, painting, and field recordings to investigate memory, grief, and synesthetic experiences. Instagram · SoundCloud Eli Wewentxu — Pitxantu: Sound Archives Field recordings, sound compositions, and multimedia work. Pitxantu emerges from deep-listening practices in the native forests of Wallmapu. Through recordings of landscapes, walking routes, and environmental sounds, Wewentxu documents a territory transformed by drought, monoculture plantations, and ongoing colonial pressures. Sound becomes an archive of ecological memory, ancestral relationships, and resistance. Eli Wewentxu is a Mapuche artist from Gulumapu-Wallmapu, whose work combines improvisation, composition, and field recording. Their practice is deeply connected to the territory, its ecological transformations, and the knowledge carried across generations. Instagram · Website Curatorial team Helga Elsner Torres is a Peruvian visual artist and researcher based in Berlin. Her multidisciplinary practice addresses identity, contemporary migration, and German–Peruvian postcolonial relationships through artistic research, writing, and cultural education. Pablo Santacana López is a Spanish curator and researcher working at the intersections of archives, activism, architecture, and performative memory. His projects explore the relationships between cultural production, collective memory, and political space. Vicente Barriga is a Chilean cultural anthropologist and curator based in Berlin. His research focuses on moving images, collective memory, cultural heritage, territory, and technology. He is co-director of VideoClub World, an international platform for experimental video art. Public programme The exhibition is accompanied by a programme of conversations, experimental moving images, acoustic performance, and collective listening experiences. Thursday, 5 November · 19:00 — Exhibition Opening Join us for the opening of To listen is to be at the encounter with an other , meet the artists and curators, and experience the installations for the first time. Saturday, 7 November · 19:00 — Artist Talk An encounter with the artistic practices and research processes behind the exhibition. An opportunity to explore how listening connects personal histories, political infrastructures, archives, and territories. Saturday, 14 November · 17:30–19:00— VideoClub World: Hearing the Lights Elsewhere III Video screening and conversation Following presentations in Tokyo and New York, the third edition of Hearing the Lights Elsewhere arrives in Berlin. Curated by VideoClub World, the screening explores the sonic materiality of moving images, treating rhythm, music, and sound as fundamental elements in constructing meaning. The programme invites audiences to listen to images and encounter sounds that are often forgotten, overlooked, or rendered invisible. Thursday, 19 November · 18:00–19:00 — Eli Wewentxu + bungalovv Acoustic performance . A live sonic encounter extending the exhibition’s exploration of memory, territory, and listening through acoustic experimentation and performance. Suggested donation: 10 € Friday, 20 November · 19:00 — Finissage with Dracaena Listening / DJ Set For the exhibition’s closing evening, Colombian DJ and selector Dracaena transforms listening into a collective and embodied experience. Drawing on salsa and diasporic musical traditions, her set approaches rhythm as a way to gather, remember, and create connections across geographical and cultural boundaries. Visit BARDO Projektraum Berlin, Germany Exhibition: 5–20 November 2026 Regular gallery hours: Wednesday–Saturday, 14:00–19:00 (6–20 November) Credits Curation Team: Helga Elsner Torres, Pablo Santacana López, Vicente Barriga Participating artists: Ale Borea, Kika Echeverría, Javier Vargas, Eli Wewentxu Bardo Team: Florencia Freis, Rocío Martínez Public programme: VideoClub World, Dracaena, Eli Wewentxu Venue: BARDO Projektraum Organisation: Karne Kunst Post navigation Read more Toggle Mixed media Digital Audio / Sound