“A gentle tremor, as fragile and delicate as life itself” – this is how Ursula K. Le Guin describes the phenomenon of sound. The exhibition invites visitors to explore this gentle tremor, along with its vibrations, resonances and traces of sound.
In the spirit of polyphony – an open, multi-voiced harmony in which several independent and equally significant melodic voices sound simultaneously – soft signals brings together artists whose works explore ecological, physical and social processes through sound. Seismic data is transformed into visual compositions; air currents and heat generate autonomous sound systems; and listening itself becomes an embodied form of perception, composed of curiosity and critical attention.
Artists: Alan Affichard, Luc Avarguès, Bella Comsom, Octave Courtin, Nina Emge, Keta Gavasheli, Lilli Lake, Hugo Livet, Mélia Roger, Sandra Volny, Yonca Yildirim
‘soft signals’ emerged from a collaboration between Mimosa e.V. (Cologne) and Selvatica (Paris), driven by a shared desire to exchange ideas on the medium of sound in contemporary art.
The exhibition is supported by the Kunststiftung NRW, the Goethe-Institut Paris, adagp, the PERSPEKTIVE Fund and the Franco-German Citizens’ Fund. As part of the PERSPEKTIVE Fund for Contemporary Art & Architecture, an initiative of the Office for the Visual Arts at the Institut français Deutschland. Supported by the French Ministry of Culture, the Institut français de Paris and the Goethe-Institut. (Source: Bilker Bunker gGmbH)
Exhibition dates: 4 to 13 September 2026.
