As part of Francesco Fonassi’s project The Oracular Eavesdropper, the seminar The Sound of Public Space brings together artists, researchers and curators to examine the political, sensory and ethical dimensions of sound as a form of public intervention. Through presentations and conversations, the seminar addresses what it means to place sound in shared urban spaces — and asks who is listening and who is being heard, and what listening demands of us. Departing from Francesco Fonassi’s newly installed work Gritar, No Caer at the Sound Wells, the seminar moves across questions of sonic fiction, field recordings, oral culture and the aesthetics of resistance. With contributions from Holger Schulze, Cally Spooner and Simone Frangi, the programme draws on perspectives from musicology, curatorial practice, performance and critical theory — tracing how sound operates not merely as artistic material, but as a force that shapes, disrupts and opens public space. 

The project The Oracular Eavesdropper by Francesco Fonassi is supported by the Italian Council program (2024) promoted by the Directorate-General for Contemporary Creativity of the Italian Ministry of Culture.

Project Partners: Museum of Contemporary Art Roskilde (DK); Museion – Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art (Bolzano, IT); Museo Experimental El Eco, (Mexico City, MX); ESAD, École supérieure d’Art de Grenoble (Grenoble, FR); qwatz, contemporary art platform (Rome, IT); Xing (Bologna, IT).

LABEL: viaindustriae (Folingo, IT); Villa Recordings (Brescia, IT).

Both Fonassi’s new work and the international seminar is part of the exhibition project The Sound of organised by Museum of Contemporary Art Roskilde and Moderna Museet Malmö. The seminar is realised in collaboration with a series of partners – Frederiksberg Library, Lydbrøndene (Sound Wells), DKF, Art Music Denmark, SOKU and the Sound Environment Center at Lund University.