"SOFAR Symphony"
group exhibition at Neun Kelche, curators Talya Lubinsky & Aouefa Amoussouvi

The SOFAR (Sound Fixing And Ranging) channel is a layer of the deep ocean where sound waves travel vast distances with minimal loss of energy. In this singular environment of low temperatures and high pressure, sound could, in theory, persist indefinitely. The vibrations, stretched and scattered, create a multilayer echo referred to as a ‘SOFAR symphony’.

The exhibition and activations engage submerged histories of colonial violence, resistance and more-than-human agencies that refuse to dissipate, traveling insistently through time and space.

The assembled works combine installations with sonic pieces that engage the material presences of specific sites. Amoussouvi leads a speculative walk around Weißensee, weaving geological, historical and spectral time. Berrigan works with the deep sea as a medium for accumulated sediments, carrying the material metaphors of mineral crystals, indigo, activated carbon dioxide, and shell. Biwa & Machiri present a sound piece meditating on water bodies as the first technology, as carriers of memory, of totems, rituals, and life-worlds. Langtry & Lubinsky follow the contours of a quarry in Cape Town, creating a space in which to listen to a vocal score.

Water, dense and elastic, is a powerful conductor of sound—especially low-frequency vibrations that travel vast distances through the SOFAR Channel. Whales rely on this submerged corridor to communicate across entire ocean basins. Military forces, too, exploit its properties for submarine surveillance and warfare. These works invite the audience to attune to refracted resonances—echoes of that which flows deep beneath the ocean’s shimmering surface, yet persists. In these frequencies lie ambiguity, layered meanings, and ancestral murmurs.