The Garden of Sound is a collection of sound and audio-visual installations that connect radiophonic art and botany, exploring the relationships between humans, plants, animals, and machines.
Using primarily the language of experimental sound and leaving verbal and rational elements aside, the works delve into spaces beyond human hearing, hidden or overlooked. Living organisms and inanimate nature are explored within the inaudible spectrum, with connections formed at the level of intuition, emotion, and imagination. In an attempt to momentarily shift humans from their dominant position in the Anthropocene and place them in an equal stance with the living world surrounding them, technology is used to bring them into a sonic symbiosis with other species.
The Listening Eye
Playing with the spatiality of sound and the concept of scale, The Listening Eye peers into the hidden corners of Radio Belgrade, relocating them from the monumental building to the unexpected environment of the Garden. Through the symbiosis of organic and inorganic, details of buttons, mixers, microphones, and cables that create the garden of sound are revealed in an impossible space. The installation incorporates footage from Marija Stojnić's 2019 film, Speak So I Can See You, which explores the soundscapes of Radio Belgrade, intertwined with Svetlana Maraš's radiophonic work Language.
Director and writer: Marija Stojnić
Producers: Marija Stojnić i Miloš Ivanović
DoP: Dušan Grubin
Radiophonic piece: “Jezik”, Svetlana Maraš
Biographies:
Marija Stojnić (Valjevo, 1986) is a film director that blends documentary and experimental artistic forms. Her award-winning film Speak So I Can See You has been screened at MoMA, as well as at the festivals in Amsterdam, Thessaloniki, Melbourne, and Munich. Marija earned her master’s degree from The New School in 2014. She is a co-founder of the vocal group Rosa.
Jakov Munižaba (Belgrade, 1982) has designed sound for over one hundred films, many of which have been screened at festivals such as Cannes, Venice, Berlin, and Sundance. He has directed radio dramas, composed film music, and is teaching sound as s professor in Belgrade and Podgorica. He earned his PhD at the Faculty of Dramatic Arts, the University of Arts in Belgrade, in 2019. He is a regular collaborator of Radio Belgrade's Electronic Studio.
Creative/Technical support: Karkatag
Acknowledgments: Radio Belgrade, Jeveremovac Botanical Garden