Exhibition FIBER Festival 2026

Nine artworks that offer various perspectives on the
concept of fragility

Linked to the theme Fragile Forces, the Amsterdam-based arts organisation FIBER presents two interconnected exhibitions under one roof: Fragile Resonances and Fragile Terrains. The exhibitions form part of the annual FIBER Festival. The separate sections function as two chapters, each inviting us in its own way to reflect on the concept of ‘fragility’ as a strength, rather than a weakness. One through sound art and ways of listening, the other through the vibrancy of matter.

Participating artists: Aldo Brinkhoff, Anaïs Lossouarn, Robin Koek & Jean-Emmanuel Rosnet, Sunjoo Lee | AYO, Brahim Tall, Franziska Windisch, Mariska de Groot, Mike Rijnierse & Rob Bothof

Part 1: Fragile Resonances

A sonic encounter between Dutch and Belgian sound artists

May 22 till June 20, 2026

de Brakke Grond

Fragile Resonances brings together work by five sound artists based in Belgium and the Netherlands who invite us to slow down, draw closer, and listen. Their practices stem from a shared sensitivity to sound as something that is not only heard, but also moves, connects, and unfolds within space.

The works stem from a fragile, sometimes barely perceptible source – such as the vibration of a chain, a whispered voice, or a play of light. Through accumulation, repetition and interference, these micro-events grow into layered, immersive compositions. What begins as small and individual unfolds into a complex whole in which order and chaos, control and unpredictability constantly intersect. These become layered, emotional sound experiences that allow us to realise that a sum of small elements can lead to powerful changes. And that, beyond our immediate perception, there are often far more complex relationships woven into our living environment.

Selection of works

SO(N)R (2026), AYO

The Choir of Dissonance: The Creation of the Sea (2025), Brahim Tall

On Random Walks (2025), Franziska Windisch

Incidence of Light (2019), Mariska de Groot

Piano / Forte (2018), Mike Rijnierse & Rob Bothof

Opening times

Tuesday – Sunday, 12:00 – 17:00 | de Brakke Grond

Opening: 22/5, 19:00

During the festival weekend

Thursday 28/5: 10:00 - 22:00

Friday 29/5: 10:00 - 20:00

Saturday 30/5: 10:00 - 20:00

Sunday 31/5: 19:00 - 20:00

Curators: Jarl Schulp (FIBER), in collaboration with Gilles Helsen (STUK) and Mirthe Demaerel (de Brakke Grond).

Part 2: Fragile Terrains

May 22 – 31, 2026

Selection of works

Thixocymatics (2026), Aldo Brinkhoff

Ce que la pierre retient du vivant (What the stone holds of the living) (2026), Anaïs Lossouarn

Garden of Mnemonics (2026), Sunjoo Lee

De glace et d'eau (2026), Robin Koek & Jean-Emmanuel Rosnet

Opening times
Tuesday – Sunday, 12:00 – 17:00 | de Brakke Grond

Opening: 22/5, 19:00

During the festival weekend

Thursday 28/5: 10:00 - 22:00

Friday 29/5: 10:00 - 20:00

Saturday 30/5: 10:00 - 20:00

Sunday 31/5: 19:00 - 20:00

The work De glace et d'eau by Robin Koek & Jean-Emmanuel Rosnet can only be viewed from 28 to 31 May, subject to a time-slot ticket. Time-slots will go online soon.

Curator: Jarl Schulp

SO(N)R

AYO

SO(N)R (2026) is an ever-evolving work, currently comprising a film and a selection of instruments, in which the material nature of sound aids in the recollection of history. AYO combines a 1960s archive of 8mm amateur film footage from Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania with an interpretation of a traditional instrument: the Abu. This Luo wind instrument was used to announce a death within the community. However, as no recordings of the Abu’s original sound are known to exist, AYO, together with master glassblower Gert Bullee, created a series of mouth-blown glass interpretations of the instrument. 

The archive footage was filmed by a former Shell employee and, within its colonial context, contains unique recordings of life at that time. What is missing, however, is the sound. Rather than viewing the lack of sound archives as a limitation, AYO saw this as an invitation to determine the sound themselves (and reclaim it). In collaboration with musician Yanik Soland, they composed a new soundtrack for Abu, using fragile sound experiments to bridge the gap between past and present.

AYO (Christine AYO) is a multidisciplinary artist who grew up in Kampala and is based in Rotterdam, who works with sculpture, sound, performance and film. Through time-based and collective works, she explores how intangible cultural heritage, such as language, memory and indigenous knowledge systems, embeds itself within and against material forms, thereby opening up spaces where history comes to life, is shared and is sometimes misunderstood.

The Choir of Dissonance: The Creation of the Sea (2025)

Brahim Tall

The Choir of Dissonance: The Creation of the Sea (2025) is an installation that listens just as much as it speaks. When there is no movement in the room, whispering can be heard. As soon as someone enters or moves, individually recorded voices build up and wash over the space. What begins with various recordings in English, French and Portuguese gradually comes together in a melodious choir. This creates an ever-changing soundscape, like a sea without a fixed form, in which harmony and noise constantly merge, allowing visitors to move at their own pace.

The work, which stems from a previous performance, explores the voice as a medium that is both fragile and powerful, moving between the intimate and the collective. It reveals how individual expression can grow into shared power, with language, memory, identity and expression merging into a single living whole.

Brahim Tall’s practice examines the Black body in relation to media production, and the ways in which media both generate, shape and impact the Black experience. In his research, the artist focuses on the gazes historically produced by this relationship and attempts to disrupt and transform them by shifting their aesthetics. Rather than focusing on a single specific medium, he uses a wide range of mediums like film, photography, video installation, audio installation and performance. Tall’s works are in a constant ongoing process that shifts between these mediums and activates different visual languages to address the way we read and interpret the Black body. In this way, he attempts to lift the veil on the mechanisms behind our naturalised interpretation of media and the conflicting biases within our gaze.

With the voices of: Aghogho (Caro Abutoh), Aïcha Ouattara, Ashley Morgan, Brahim Tall, Emeraude Tshidibi Kabeya, Fahad Seriki, Fred Gata (Frédérick Nizeyimana Gatabazi), Gabriel Eden, Jonathan Rwaka Rutayisire, Joram Kunde Boumkwo, Junior Akwete, Kamal Tall, Kenny Mala Ngombe, Keziah Morris, Lou Cocody Valetino, Martha Canga Antonio, STACE, Uwase (Anaïs Rutayisire), Zindzi Tillot Owusu

Music composed by: Lisa Wambacq

Audio Design: David Dubois

On Random Walks

Franziska Windisch

On Random Walks (2025) by the Brussels-based artist Franziska Windisch is a sound installation in which vibrating chains oscillate between order and unpredictability. Set in motion by inaudibly low frequencies, they generate rapidly changing patterns, creating temporary knots that dissolve almost immediately. This is reminiscent of how, in physics, these so-called ‘granular chains’ are used as a model to study the behaviour of filamentous structures such as DNA, RNA or polymers. 

The moving chains, in turn, gently strike the brass plates, creating a pulsating field that constantly shifts and sounds different as you change your position. What appears small and simple thus reveals a continuous dynamic of change that accumulates into complex, spatial compositions. Sound connects these processes: the inaudible vibrations set the material in motion and, through subtle touches, generate a pulsating sound field.

Franziska Windisch is a sound artist and lecturer based in Brussels, working across performance and installation. Her practice centres on processes of transformation and perception, creating situations in which sound, movement, language, and material enter into shifting, poetic relations. Moving beyond representational modes, Windisch develops scores as open structures, where internal states and external conditions interact and unfold over time. Listening into matter, places and situations, her work is dedicated to processes of transformation and perception.

Production of Overtoon Brussels and STUK Leuven, with the support of the Kunstendecreet Vlaanderen

Incidence of Light

Mariska de Groot

Incidence of Light (2019) consists of raw, rustling sounds with a distinctly mechanical quality, which growl and squeak. At times, the work evokes the sense of space of a busy street or the image of faint, urban light reflections on the windows of a moving car. At other times, we hear moving machinery or something reminiscent of an alarm. As the audiovisual composition unfolds, a 360-degree world opens up in which reflections and irregularities in the sound offer a poetic and immersive experience. It is the small glitches, the coincidences and the unpolished sounds that make Incidence of Light a unique experience – something that cannot be predicted or controlled. Shadows approach rhythmic silences, and shades of grey determine the volume. An experience in which seeing and listening continuously inform one another.

Mariska de Groot her artistic research into optical sound is a recurring theme; she works with light-to-sound scores and develops and plays kinetic projection instruments. These often consist of artistic feedback systems that arise between light and dark, shadows and reflections. Light patterns are detected by sensors, which in turn control the sound composition. This exploration of the subtle nature of optical sound and the synergy between visual and sonic dimensions has a rich history. It forms part of a long tradition of kinetic light sculptures, such as the Light-Space Modulator by pioneer László Moholy-Nagy.

Piano / Forte

Mike Rijnierse & Rob Bothof

Piano / Forte (2018) consists of two dismantled pianos, leaving only the suspended piano harps after the keys and wooden frame have been removed. This is the instrument’s heavy heart, but apart from that, there is nothing left to strike the strings. Artists Mike Rijnierse & Rob Bothof introduce us to the piano in a new, trance-inducing way; by suspending the string mechanism like a pendulum and allowing visitors to set it in motion, a new world of sound, complete with reverberations and resonances, comes to life. It is not the striking of the strings that produces the familiar piano sound, but rather the translation of the movement, which is converted by software and electromagnets into vibrations that are played across the entire structure. This creates a new complexity of layered, subtle and alienating sounds, which we do not recognise from this traditional instrument. 

Like two pendulums, the sculptures swing in tandem and against one another, creating different phases and interferences. Whereas normally the material is entirely at the service of the perfect tone, we now listen to its free and unpredictable character, which grates and hums. In doing so, we experience how small interventions can set off broad sonic resonances.

Mike Rijnierse is an artist, inventor, curator and lecturer who transforms light and sound into spatial experiences. His practice focuses on composing with and for the environment, in which he regards exhibition spaces as an integral part of the work itself. Historical and media-archaeological research often serves as an important starting point in his practice.

Rob Bothof is a creative programmer, artist and engineer. He works at the intersection of instrument making, machine interaction, autonomous systems and sound. His practice ranges from algorithmic systems to audiovisual composition, and consistently asks how technological structures can leave room for expression and openness.