Geographies of Listening

A three-day festival celebrating the opening of the permanent Public Community Library at Out of Sight.

Rather than treating listening as a single theme, the festival approaches it from several distinct artistic positions. Artists Eszter Némethi & Julia E. Dyck, Isabel Burr Raty, Eva van Tongeren, and members of Study Circle Antwerp, are generously opening up their ongoing research and inviting you to join the festival and the opening of the Public Community Library.

Across three days, listening shifts from voice and language to the body and landscape, and from an intimate act between individuals to a collective and political practice.

We would be delighted to have you join us to mark this important occasion. Please save the dates in your calendars. We look forward to welcoming you to Antwerp.

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FESTIVAL PROGRAMME

Friday, 16.10.2026 / 19:00–22:00

19:00 — Opening of the Public Community Library

20:00 & 21:00 — Screening: THE FILM OF HER by Bill Morrison (1996, 16 mm, b&w, optical sound, 13’), based on the story of a Library of Congress clerk who saved a vault full of paper reels documenting the earliest days of cinema from incineration.

19:00–22:00 (ongoing) — Presentation of the collective artistic research by Study Circle Antwerp and THE SPINE by Isabel Burr Raty.

Saturday, 17.10.2026 / 10:00–19:00

10:00–16:00 — The Listening Field Autumn School (Day 1), facilitated by Eszter Némethi & Julia E. Dyck, returns as a two-day school dedicated to the political agency of the listener. Participation is free. Register via the open call form (max. 15 participants).

10:00–19:00 (ongoing) — Presentation of the collective artistic research by Study Circle Antwerp and THE SPINE by Isabel Burr Raty.

Sunday, 18.10.2026 / 10:00–22:00

10:00–16:00 — The Listening Field Autumn School (Day 2), facilitated by Eszter Némethi & Julia E. Dyck. Register via the open call form (max. 15 participants).

19:00–20:00 — Visite # Love & Lightning (collective reading): Rant of the Menopausal Cyborg (2002) by Faith Wilding, from Love & Lightning: A Collection of Queer and Feminist Manifestos, compiled by Girls Like Us and author Sarah Van Binsbergen. / RSVP via the online form (max. 15 participants).

20:00 — Visite # Love & Lightning (screening): Peaches Goes Bananas (2024, 73’) by Marie Losier, who takes an intimate look at artist and musician Peaches. / RSVP via the online form (max. 30 participants).

10:00–22:00 (ongoing) — Presentation of the collective artistic research by Study Circle Antwerp and THE SPINE by Isabel Burr Raty.

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PRACTICAL INFORMATION

When: 16.10—18.10.2026
Where: Out of Sight, Somersstraat 31, 2018 Antwerp

To make the festival enjoyable, we provide:

– FREE entry and participation in the festival’s programme for everyone.
– Free vegetarian lunch, tea, and coffee, for the participants of The Listening Field Autumn School on Saturday and Sunday.
– Free vegetarian soup for the participants of the collective reading, during Visite # Love & Lightning on Sunday evening.
– There is a quiet prayer room with a prayer mat, available for prayer during the festival. It is a calm space where you can find rest and peace. It is also suitable for breastfeeding if you or your baby prefer a calm space.
– The programme is in English. However, we hope that together we can find a way to offer personal translation when needed.
– The ground floor of the venue and the toilet are step-free and wheelchair-accessible.
– There is a baby-changing table in the toilet.

If you have any additional questions, please send an email to dusica.drazic@out-of-sight.be.

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The Public Community Library is situated between artistic research and public presentation. It is being co-developed in collaboration with Study Circle Antwerp within the On Mobilisation. Towards Multivocal Collaborative Futures project, co-funded by the European Union (Creative Europe programme).