audiovisual essay with soundwalk and installation
Sonic traces of the lignite landscape devastated by open-pit mining at Hambacher Forest. Montage of liminal spaces between the forest with its intricate soundscape, the anthropogenic noises, the dead silence of the pit, and the golf course ironically intended for its restoration.
The research explores the sound ecology of landscapes scarred by open-pit mining. Our first case study is the Hambach Forest, which until recently held the infamous title of Europe’s largest open-pit mine, only to be surpassed by the Bełchatów coal mine, our second case study, followed by a lithium mine in Serbia. Specifically, we focus on the liminal space where the forest, with its intricate soundscapes, is disrupted by mechanical noise, contrasting with the dead silence of the open-pit mine. Our field recordings capture the tension between the forest’s biodiversity and the mine’s destruction, bearing witness to both devastation and resilience. The contested soundscape serves as a sensory and emotional bridge for the audience, highlighting the irreversible damage caused by extractive industries. This sociomusicological research aims to convey this tension through two key outcomes: 1. A sound walk, an exercise in discovering liminal micro-spaces between devastation and wilderness in any locality. 2. A video essay, offering a bird’s-eye view of the open pit’s desolate landscape, embracing its painful poetics. Through sound and narrative, we tell a multi-sensory story about the possibilities of empathetic coexistence with the landscape.
Composition and video essay: Ida Hiršenfelder and Hugo Lioret
Sound poster: CENSE | Beyond Listening 2025: Walking-with changes, Cukrarna Gallery, Ljubljana, 23 September 2025, at 14:00
Exhibition and publication: Malou éditions, 97 rue de la Santé, Paris, 3 November 2025
Publication editor: Jean-Christophe Aguas
Text by: Sandrine Revet, PhD
Graphic design: Juanma Gomez
Production: Sektor Institute (Ljubljana) and Malou éditions (Paris)
Co-production: Cona Institute (Ljubljana) and spæs — lab for spatial aesthetics in sound (Berlin)
Interviews with: …to be announced
Supported by: Republic of Slovenia – Ministry for Culture, Ljubljana City Municipality – Department for Culture, Malou éditions
Ida Hiršenfelder (beepblip) is a sound artist, a member of the Jata C group for bioacoustics and sound ecologies and the Clockwork Voltage community for modular synthesis. She completed her Master of Sonology studies at the Royal Conservatoire in The Hague and was awarded Golden Lightning for soundscape by Bunker for season 2023/24.
Hugo Lioret is a French sound artist, PhD researcher and mediator based in Paris. He is pursuing a sociomusicological action-research project based on bio-inspiration under the supervision of Hyacinthe Ravet (IReMus, Sorbonne University). His academic work includes reflections on field recording as a musical practice and its role as a tool for music mediation.