Titled Souffles: On Deep Listening and Active Reception, the first Invocation of the 36th Bienal focuses on the circularity as well as the precarity of breath, Gnawa music as a way of being, Sufi cultures, and listening as a practice of coexistence, as well as place- and space-making.

The gathering is conceived by the 36th Bienal’s conceptual team in collaboration with LE 18 and the Fondation Dar Bellarj, as part of their curatorial practices of exploring sound and music as channels of knowledge.

Marrakech is a crossroads of cultures, belief systems and languages, with much of its vast knowledge being transmitted through sound and gesture. The first Invocation explores how these sonic (oral and aural) traditions are enacted, preserved and passed down. The ancient practices of deep listening – from the performative rituals of Gnawa brotherhood to the oral tradition of Halqa in North African theater forms– serve as the starting point for this edition.

The title is borrowed from Souffles, a poem by Birago Diop, on the potential of listening to a plethora of beings — animate and inanimate —, but also a pioneering magazine that dared to envision liberation and emancipatory political imaginaries through poetry and experimentation with language. Founded in Morocco in 1966 and inspired by thinkers such as Frantz Fanon, Mário de Andrade and René Depestre, it was one of the few to document these oral traditions until its last issue in 1971.

For Souffles: On Deep Listening and Active Reception, a group of cultural practitioners from different disciplines, such as writers,  musicians, artists, poets, performers, as well as scientists, were invited to contribute to the discursive and performative program. It will also investigate how these traditions have been accessed and preserved in different media over the years, including publications.

The program is divided into two days, November 14 and 15, the first based on the spiritual practice of listening to rhythm and its resonance in the body, and the second focused on breathing to create and claim spaces and existence, and on the legacy of Souffles magazine.

Know more about the participants.