Announcement of “The School for Sonic Memory” residency program participants

A nomadic Mediterranean residency program for sound and urban heritage

Having received more than 250 applications from musicians, sound artists, architects, visual artists, activists, urbanists, collectives, researchers, performance and filmmakers and other practitioners, "The School for Sonic Memory" residency program will be co-shaped by 6 selected participants in collaboration with a group of local artists in three Mediteranean cities: Athens, Alexandria & Marseille.

As part of the “ALEXANDRIA: (RE)ACTIVATING COMMON URBAN IMAGINARIES” project, Theatrum Mundi and Onassis Stegi are producing a pluri-disciplinary nomadic residency program exploring sound, memory and trans-Mediterranean resonances.

Together, and in collaboration with local artists, urbanists and researchers, the 6 participants will form a ‘school’ for sonic memory, investigating the ways that three cities across the Mediterranean resonate with one another, how elements of a connected and conflictual past are made audible within them.

The selected artists will join a 6-month production process, based around 3 one-week creative research residencies:

Athens, November 2021
Alexandria, February 2022
Marseille, March 2022

A public event/ public assembly will also be organized in Athens in summer 2022 to publicly present the results of the residency program and the artistic & research methodology.

A final week-long event will be organized in Biella, Italy in July 2022 to share insights and the results of the residency.

Selected International Participants:

Onyeka Igwe (British/Nigerian)
Asmaa Jama (Danish)
Maria Sideri (Greek)
Youmna Saba (Lebanese)
Hatem Hegab (Egyptian)
Monai de Paula Antunes (Brasilian/German)

Selected Local Participants:

Athens:

Marilia Kastrouni
Natassa Dourida
Ακοο-ο (Dana Papachristou, George Samantas)

Alexandria:

Yasmine Hussein
Ahmed Saleh
Mohamed Adel Dessouki

Marseille:

Zoe le Voyer
Elena Biserna
Sam Karpienia

“The School for Sonic Memory” program is curated by Theatrum Mundi in collaboration with Onassis Stegi.

In Athens, the residency is hosted by Onassis Stegi.

In Alexandria the residency is hosted in collaboration with local partners.

In Marseille, the residency is hosted by the Museum of the Civilisations of Europe and the Mediterranean “MUCEM”.

The project “Alexandria: (re)activating common urban imaginaries” (ALEX) aims to take a fresh look at the many challenges faced by the arts and heritage sectors, through the symbolic and historical prism of the city of Alexandria and its influences on urban development in the Mediterranean and beyond. The project is supported by the European Union's Creative Europe program.