DB: The set up makes use of acoustic waves to reflect whale vocalizations and echolocation. How do you think about these vibrations reaching the customer?
BB & DK: We wish the sonic expertise to be audible, visible (see: the choreography of signal language), and – at chosen moments – bodily felt within the physique, very similar to whales expertise sound in water. The specified impact is impressed by underwater acoustic phenomena that correspond to the sensations evoked by cetacean vocalizations and echolocation, and which are additionally near the experiences of Deaf folks, who understand sound waves by way of vibration. We purpose for the waves that seem at particular moments to be immersive, not aggressive. The options are at the moment within the design part, with cautious consideration given to the affect of sound waves on residing organisms and the encompassing setting.
rehearsing submerged choreographies for Poland’s pavilion
DB: You’re combining cinematography, signal language, underwater recording, and choreography. Which medium proved probably the most resistant, and which one opened new conceptual doorways?
BB & DK: We work by way of connections and interlockings. Above-water and underwater cinematography, choral singing and digital music, choreography, signal and phonic languages – these media meet and enter into dialogue with each other. The undertaking is multilayered: we mix the potentials and languages of various instruments, whereas additionally exploring the probabilities and capacities of their transformation, distortion, and above all, amplification and empowerment. It’s on the factors the place these qualities meet, and inside their relationality, that probably the most compelling discoveries and conceptual doorways emerge. This strategy aligns with the overarching theme of circulation, fluidity, and connectivity inside distinction, by way of mutual listening.
performers transfer collectively, impressed by colleges of fish and shared bodily rhythms
DB: The theme of the 2026 Biennale facilities on ‘minor keys,’ delicate registers which are usually ignored. In what approach do you see Liquid Tongues working in a minor key, and in what approach is it defiantly loud?
BB & DK: In her curatorial idea for Biennale 2026, primarily based on the musical metaphor of ‘minor keys’, Koyo Kouoh invitations us to a contemplative encounter with what’s delicate and ignored from day after day – quiet voices, uncared for narratives, micro-memories. She encourages us to develop refined types of resistance, to create new relationships, delicate experiments, to construct polyphonic scores of communities listening to, sensing, and resonating with one another. Liquid Tongues develops this concept, trying to interrupt by way of what we think about to be the boundaries of communication and to create subjective communities of listening to and Deaf folks, taking numerous views under consideration. This proposed model of the longer term considers an animal perspective as nicely.
Roger Payne’s now-legendary Songs of the Humpback Whale recordings of 1970 led to bans on whale-hunting and introduced these animals again from the verge of extinction. The complexity of their sounds made us realise their intelligence and cultural sophistication. This story reveals the ability of salvaged voices transmitted by way of artwork.
The narrative of the set up might be primarily based on tales of loss and forgetting, reconstructing and creating actuality anew. That is the story of Payne’s work and the importance of his recordings. It’s a new and unheard (or perhaps outdated and reborn) assortment of lots of of solitary humpbacks off the west coast of Africa. It’s the creation of works on the qilaat – a ritual drum of the native inhabitants of Greenland – regardless that nobody is aware of its sound from earlier than their brutal colonisation. It’s work on restoring Hand Discuss – Plains Indian Signal Language – the common signal language of listening to and Deaf native inhabitants of the Nice Plains of North America. These tales enable us, after all, to consider reconstructing the encompassing world.
Video sketches – Bogna Burska, video sketches for the ‘Liquid Tongues’ | picture by Magda Mosiewicz, performers: Bogna Burska, Daniel Kotowski, courtesy of the artists
Defiantly Loud is predicated on the idea of Deaf Achieve, which sees deafness not as a incapacity, however as an identification and tradition, providing distinctive views and potential. Deaf Achieve turns being Deaf from a loss right into a acquire, displaying how Deaf folks contribute to the world’s variety. This strategy additionally has its benefits for listening to folks. As an alternative of perceiving deafness as a factor to be fastened or handled, it’s seen as a trait that may make a singular contribution and be to society’s benefit. Deafness is usually described as residing in a ‘world of silence.’ But signing might be forceful, expansive, even aggressive; its depth shifts from sound to imaginative and prescient. From the angle of Deaf Achieve, loudness doesn’t should be tied to the phonetic voice – it’s a approach of asserting presence. The undertaking additionally contains phonetic screams and the voices of Deaf folks, however these are introduced on their very own phrases, exterior phonocentric hierarchies.
Choir in Movement, the group acting on display, is an experimental social choir with its personal historical past, combining music, efficiency, visible artwork, and spatial apply. The group survived the lack of its house – the founding cultural establishment the place it had developed over a number of years – rising as a grassroots initiative of shared creativity and motion. Born in early 2024 from this social power, Choir in Movement is a self-organising, open initiative that sustains its group – one which seeks to carry out, act, and communicate out collectively, whereas remaining receptive to new voices and views. Revolt of the Deaf: Renewal directed by Bogna Burska and curated by Daniel Kotowski (Zachęta, 2025), is a play the place Choir in Movement first appeared in a phonic/sign-language ensemble (listening to and Deaf folks). The play spoke of communication issues, common languages, and the revolt of Deaf college students in 1988 at Gallaudet College. Whereas engaged on this play, a exceptional group of Deaf and listening to folks was created, past language obstacles.
Liquid Tongues explores communication past phonetic language | picture by Magda Mosiewicz, performers: Bogna Burska, Daniel Kotowski, courtesy of the artists
DB: The undertaking offers with marginalized languages and more-than-human communication. What sorts of futures really feel doable once we cease assuming that language have to be spoken and human?
BB & DK: After we cease assuming that language have to be spoken and/or human, solely new post-anthropocentric futures open up, by which people now not see themselves as an distinctive or dominant species. This attitude permits us to note how non-human organic beings talk and work together in wealthy and sophisticated methods.
It additionally permits us to think about that the norms we take without any consideration round language – particularly these arising from phonocentric hierarchies, similar to what counts as a ‘correct’ language, who speaks, who’s allowed to talk, and who’s heard – could, relying on the context, shift or break down. What is taken into account an incapability or loss from a dominant perspective, can turn into a supply of energy and acquire – a shared acquire.
By being attentive to non-verbal and more-than-human communication, we are able to discover the probabilities of multisensory, non-linear, and collective languages, creating futures by which communication is extra inclusive and relational, whereas additionally being delicate to various ecosystems.
