Global Dystopia Sound Art Biennial - HAUNT/frontviews

Global Dystopia Sound Art Biennial 2026
Exhibitions | Performances | Workshops | Discourse
September 25 – October 17, 2026
HAUNT: September 26 to October 11 – Opening Performances, Exhibition
Bmm: September 26 to October 11 – Exhibition, Performance on October 10
Flutgraben e.V.: October 2–17 – Opening and closing events with performances, exhibition, symposium
Deep See @CafeBabette: October 8 – Performance
Floating Berlin: September 25 through October 4 – Student Exhibition (in cooperation with the Berlin University of the Arts – Sound Studies)

Since 2018, Errant Sound e.V. has initiated and organized the DYSTOPIA Sound Art Biennial—an international platform dedicated to sound art and its engagement with the tensions between dystopia and utopia. Across its editions to date, the biennial has brought together more than 120 artists and approximately 60 projects, each exploring, in distinct and layered ways, the experiential terrains of both dystopian and utopian imaginaries. Conceived as an artist-driven initiative, the biennial emerges directly from artistic practice: curated, organized, and realized by the artists themselves.

The current edition of the biennial is dedicated to the theme“Global Dystopias.” Artists, collectives, and initiatives from the so-called Global South engage in dialogue with perspectives from the Global North. Their works trace the interconnections of ecological, social, and technological dynamics, while simultaneously opening up speculative spaces for alternative—even utopian—imaginaries.

The biennial thus positions itself not merely as an exhibition format, but as an ongoing process: a platform for polyphonic exchange where diverse experiential realities, forms of knowledge, and aesthetic practices intersect. Within this context, sound operates as a particularly sensitive medium—it traverses space, bridges distances, and enables modes of perception that go beyond the visual. In doing so, it offers new ways of engaging with questions of coexistence, resilience, and political imagination.

These inquiries begin within the framework of residency programs, where artistic research, production, and exchange are closely intertwined. During the biennial, they culminate in exhibitions and a discursive symposium that brings together artists and theorists, further advancing the interplay between artistic practice and critical reflection.

Artists: Yasmeen Al-Qaisi, Lisa W Carlson, Organisms Democracy, Txulunh Gakran/João Voia, Impulsive Habitat, Patricia Hegglin, Gary Hill, Molasses Industries, Brandon LaBelle, Ether O, Tintin Patrone, David Stalling, Staffan Westerlund