On Saturday 27 March from 21:00 CET, The Smog Event brings together artists, theorists and film in an online programme about smog, initiating a new series of Sonic Acts transmissions under the banner of Night Air. The first event of the series includes presentations by artist Amy Balkin and anthropologist Timothy K Choy. These take place alongside a weekend-long screening of the 2019 documentary film Smog Town (viewable in Benelux only) by Chinese filmmaker Meng Han. Audience members are invited to engage with the discussions via a live-chat Q&A.

Smog, a portmanteau of ‘smoke’ and ‘fog’, is pollution made visible. It is a cloud of nitrogen and sulphur oxides, ozone, smoke and other particulate matter (PM) – matter so small that it lodges deep in the lungs and bodies of living beings. It usually comes from human exploitation of resources: excessive coal combustion, traffic, industry, forest fires and various reactions of those emissions combined with atmospheric conditions.

Photo Sonic Acts