Event

Remixing the Stage: Circular Listening Sessions

SAVVY Contemporary is hosting listening sessions at Oona Bar, Studio db, HKW, and its own space.

By Staff

From July to December 2025, Re-Mixing the Stage: Circular Listening Sessions—a project by SAVVY Contemporary, created and curated by Amuleto Manuela, together with Billy Fowo, with artistic direction by Lynhan Balatbat-Helbock and Bonaventure Ndikung —unfolds across various Berlin venues, including Oona Bar, Studio dB, HKW, and SAVVY’s own space in Wedding.

The project brings together artists and collectives working across sound, resistance, memory, and rhythm: Ariel William Orah & Tengal, Cassette Head Sessions, Círculo de la Palabra with SAVVY, Dudù Kouate, Laura Robles, LY:I, Oroko Radio, Orquesta Experimental de Instrumentos Nativos de Bolivia, Ra Mava, SACA SAL, SHUSH, TRU:L, among others.

Structured across four thematic chapters, On Partying, On Polyphonies, On Grooving, and On Jamming & Crossing Rhythms, the series reimagines how we gather and listen. Rather than reinforcing hierarchies through stages, booths or fixed formats, Circular Listening invites participants into shared spaces for deep, embodied listening. The project draws on Indigenous and diasporic practices of sonic gathering: from the Wiwa Circle of Words in Colombia to the Rueda de Cumbia and Roda de Samba, where the audience and performers form a circle rather than a division. These are practices where rhythm travels across bodies and meaning is held collectively.

In a time of escalating social fragmentation and rising fascisms, the series reflects on how sound can help us unlearn dominant ways of knowing and open up space for plurality. It takes inspiration from theorists like Jacques Attali, who describes music as a form of communication, knowledge, and healing, a means of connecting across time, place and difference. Re-Mixing the Stage asks what it means to listen together without dominance, without distance, without superiority.

Full program

  • Session I: On Partying 12 July 2025, 21:00–04:00, Studio dB Featuring LY:I, Ra Mava, SACA SAL, SHUSH

  • Session II: On Polyphonies 9 August 2025, 14:00–00:00, Refuge Worldwide Featuring Ariel William Orah & Tengal, Círculo de la Palabra with SAVVY, Dudù Kouate, Oroko Radio, TRU:L, Orquesta Experimental de Instrumentos Nativos de Bolivia and more

  • Session III: On Grooving 28 October 2025, 19:00–23:00, Haus der Kulturen der Welt Featuring Laura Robles and guests

  • Session IV: On Jamming & Crossing Rhythms 4 December 2025, 18:00–23:00, SAVVY Contemporary Featuring Dudù Kouate, Cassette Head Sessions

Header image by Juliana Toro

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