Souffles: On Deep Listening and Active Reception

Invoking sound and gesture to weave a tapestry of Marrakech’s multicultural traditions and their preservation across generations

Published with Fundação Bienal de São Paulo.

This first in a series of four educational publications released in conjunction with the 36th Bienal de São Paulo centers on the Invocation held in Marrakech. The contributions examine listening as a practice of coexistence, the precarity of breath and the cultural traditions of Gnawa and Sufi communities. Marrakech is a crossroads of cultures, belief systems and languages, with much of its vast knowledge transmitted through sound and gesture. This first Invocation explores how these sonic traditions are enacted, preserved and passed down. The ancient practices of deep listening—from the performative rituals of Gnawa brotherhood to the oral tradition of Halqa (people’s theater) in North African theater forms—serve as the starting point for this edition. The title is borrowed from “Souffles,” a poem by Birago Diop, on the potential of listening to a plethora of beings.