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.

The block Sounds of Resistance asks what does resistance sound like? Two genre-defying lecture performances with live sound listen against power – Zifzafa, an audio essay authored by Lawrence Abu Hamdan, and Listening Hymns: Sonic Antifascism by ILYICH.

Zifzafa – an Arabic word describing a wind that shakes everything in its path – centres on the Israeli occupied Syrian Golan Heights, where 30 planned wind turbines will flood the region with a relentless mechanical roar. Framed as a ‘green’ energy project, the turbines weaponise sound itself, unsettling and exhausting local life. Lawrence Abu Hamdan, founder of Earshot – the first non-profit dedicated to audio for justice, whose investigations have informed landmark legal cases – brings this research to the stage. The performance is composed by Busher Kanj, who performs live together with saxophonist Amr Mdah and video designer Fabio Cervi, a collaborator from Earshot. Through sound and visual models, they turn the imposed noise into an act of resistance – transforming acoustic violence into something that can be witnessed, felt, and collectively opposed.

Listening Hymns: Sonic Antifascism by ILYICH (aka Ukrainian artist Anton Kats) invites the audience into a live performance of an ever-growing spoken-word archive gathering the voices of artists, poets, and activists. The improvised modular synthesis set is rooted in anti-racism, intersectional feminism, abolitionism, somatic, and sonic methodologies, creating an ambiguous space of attention – tuning into what can be heard and what remains silent.

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