The Symposium is one of the key programmes of Sonic Acts Biennial 2026, a place to sharpen the ideas that underpin the main theme and direction, Melted for Love. Over two days, artists and thinkers explore how love, technology, and sound shape our sense of belonging.

In an epoch marked by genocide, devastation, and planetary destruction, Ecologies of Endurance listens for what persists in the wake of erasure.

In her performative lecture Deep Time Soundings researcher and curator Margarida Mendes examines the evolving ecology of Portugal’s Tagus River, where pollution, dam management, and monoculture farming are transforming the landscape. Through field recordings, voice, and the stories of river guardians, she creates a multisensory account of an ecosystem undergoing profound loss and transformation.

Yazan Khalili – artist and cofounder of the Bethlehem- and Ramallah-based Radio Alhara – reflects on the role of the contemporary institution, rooted in Palestinian cultural practices.

pantea has been selected as the resident for The Walls Have Ears, a sound studies writing residency organised by Sonic Acts and De Ateliers/Woonhuis. In their lecture, pantea presents Maram-Nameh – a living work that listens for the sonic worlds lost due to endangered and silenced languages, gathering words, and narratives that reverberate across history.

Margarida Mendes, Yazan Khalili, and pantea’s presentations will be followed by a Q&A moderated by Mirna Belina.