“Before being a conscious spectacle, every landscape is a dreamlike experience.”

Gaston Bachelard,  L’Eau et les rêves.

Mixed-Species Flocks takes its name from the temporary associations that different bird species form through cooperation and mutual attentiveness. Rooted in the shared experience of the Curatorial Studies program, the installation brings together birdsongs from diverse geographies to compose a common sonic landscape. Through this constellation, the work reflects on processes of learning and unlearning, evoking the encounters, exchanges, and modes of coexistence that shaped the curatorial journey.

Mixed-species flocks are temporary associations of different bird species that move together through shared vigilance, cooperation, and reciprocal attention. Constantly reorganizing as they travel, these mobile communities are shaped by movement, sound, and the circulation of signals between species, while maintaining a collective structure through complementary roles and coordinated behaviors. Taking this phenomenon as its point of departure, Mixed-Species Flocks brings together birdsongs from different parts of the world, sourced from the Xeno-canto archive, and layers them onto Wetlands (2021), Aki Pasoulas’s electroacoustic composition based on recordings from the urban wetlands of Valdivia, Chile. Through the convergence of these geographically distant voices, the installation composes a shared sonic landscape that reflects on listening, coexistence, and the forms of exchange that emerge across difference.

“Central to this programme is a focus on group-mindedness, selforganisation, and collective authorship. Rather than adhering to a single definition of curating, we emphasise the exploration of new ways of coming together, while also recognising the challenges and biases that arise from unequal labor distribution. We continually ask, “Who is included when we say ‘we’?” Through collective infrastructures, participatory processes, and models of shared responsibility, we underline the importance of experimentation, trust, openness, and emotional engagement—crucial elements for unlearning and expanding the possibilities within traditional curatorial practices.

In this programme, curating becomes an act of kinship, a practice of solidarity, and a cooperative space for critical discourse. We don’t see collectivity as a single unified creative body but as a processual creative endeavour, where group work is a dynamic and evolving process that opens new horizons in curatorial practice.”

https://curatorialstudies.be/

Curatorial Studies 2025-2026

Eline Adriaensen (Belgium), Samira Ali Reiza Beigi (Iran), Houda Ben Azzouz (Belgium), Anna Bruni (Italy), Cristina Carnelos (Brazil), Alex Celis (Chile), Emma Crombé (Belgium), Anais Du Champs (Belgium), Tess Ego (Belgium), Youssef Elkhiar (Maroc), Zinnia Fay (Belgium), Nora Franco (Spain), Charlotte Frenay (Belgium), Val Holfeld (Germany), Bruna Martins (Brazil), Antoine Meffre Chol (France), Sutanee Panyajai (Thailand), Théo Jack Scherer (France), Alice Zitelli (Italy)

Auditorium Constant Permeke

Campus Bijloke – KASK

25-28/06/2026

More information:

xeno-canto.org

akipasoulas.com