collective listening sessions with Arnau Horta

As part of the SEC series, Arnau Horta proposes an attentive listening session of Alvin Lucier’s piece I am sitting in a room, on which he wrote his doctoral thesis in 2023. Based on the listening session, various issues will be addressed regarding the particular artistic status of this work, which lies halfway between conceptual art, experimental music, performance, and text-sound composition. The role of voice and language in Lucier’s work will be discussed, as well as how it can be understood as a particular philosophical device that allows us to question notions such as subject, body, and presence.

The SEC (Sesiones de Escucha Colectiva) are a space to experience deep listening from a physical dimension. More than just hearing, it is about collectively inhabiting the practice of listening as a tool for connection, reflection, and sensory exploration.

Guided by guest artists, each session offers sound journeys that invite attentive, immersive, and expanded perception of sound.

SEC arises from the desire to pause and share a moment of listening, expanding our perception of sound beyond the audible and generating a collective sound experience from the body.

bio

Arnau Horta holds a PhD in Philosophy and works in the fields of curating, teaching, cultural criticism, and artistic research. Both in his curatorial work and in his research and outreach activities, he focuses primarily on the analysis of sound and listening in their phenomenological and political dimensions. He has collaborated with the Museu d’Art Contemporani de Barcelona (MACBA), the Museo Nacional de Arte Contemporáneo Reina Sofía (MNCARS), the Museu Picasso in Barcelona, the Fundació Joan Miró, La Virreina Centre de la Imatge, the Centre de Cultura Contemporània de Barcelona (CCCB), the Max Planck Institute in Berlin, and Virginia Tech, among other cultural projects and initiatives. He currently teaches Aesthetics and Art Theory at Bau, the Centre Universitari d’Arts i Disseny in Barcelona.

Activity coordinated by Valentina Alvarado Matos and Carlos Vásquez Méndez.

SEC (Sesiones de Escucha Colectiva) is part of REBOST, a program line managed autonomously and collectively by the members of La Escocesa, who decide on the activities they want to organize in relation to the interests and needs of the group.

If you have any needs or questions regarding the accessibility of this activity, please visit our page on “access to La Escocesa” by clicking here.