Lisboa Soa 2025 kicks off this Saturday with nine days dedicated to the sound and listening of the city

agenda

DATE

10 Oct 2025

AUTHOR

Umbigo

Lisboa Soa 2025 kicks off this Saturday with nine days dedicated to the sound and listening of the city

AUTHOR

Umbigo

Curated by Raquel Castro and organised by Associação SONORA, Lisboa Soa 2025 begins this Saturday, 11 October, and runs until 19 October, bringing together artists, researchers and the public around sound as an artistic practice and shared experience.

Lisboa Soa is an annual festival of sound art and ecology that explores the intersection between sound and environment. Over the course of eight editions, held between 2016 and 2023, the festival has taken place in various public spaces in the city of Lisbon – from Tapada das Necessidades and Estufa Fria to the EPAL Reservoirs, Santa Clara Market, National Pantheon, Roman Theatre, Carpintarias de São Lázaro and Quartel do Largo Residências, among others.

More than a series of artistic proposals, Lisboa Soa asserts itself as a space for listening and thinking. Through installations, performances, workshops and soundwalks, the festival proposes a sensitive approach to the city, transforming former places of silence into territories of encounter and resonance.

Based on the theme Energy in Flow, which proposes a reflection on sound as a vital and relational force between bodies, places and times, the 2025 edition will take place in the Gardens of the Miguel Bombarda Hospital, the Mitra Santa Casa – Lisbon and the ZDB 8 Marvila.

The festival's opening, which will take place on 11 October in the gardens of the Miguel Bombarda Hospital, will feature a round table discussion on Sound Art, Science, Ecology and Society, bringing together several artists in dialogue with researcher Rita Santos, a workshop entitled Barulhário, the opening of the collective Sound Art exhibition O Ar que Circula — which transforms the old Panóptico into a space for listening and sharing — and a performance by João Pimenta Gomes, which closes the first day of the event.

Highlights of the programme include performances by Merche Blasco (Fauna, 16 OCT), Francisco López (VirtuAural Electro-Mechanics, 18 OCT), Henrique Fernandes, Jorge Quintela and Inti Gallardo (Omnispectrum, 18 OCT) and Jonathan Uliel Saldanha (Vox Humana, 19 OCT), among others. Also noteworthy are the sound installations The Chill Out Zone, by Taiga Trigo, SÄGEZAHN, by Andreas Trobollowitsch, and Urban Interference, by Wouter Jaspers.

On 19 October, Mitra Santa Casa – Lisbon will host the festival's closing afternoon, with a series of performances dedicated to expanded listening, bringing together Rie Nakajima & Pierre Berthet, Vittoria Assembri, Nico Espinoza and Jonathan Uliel Saldanha. The programme for this day also extends to ZDB 8 Marvila, with a masterclass by Francisco López, dedicated to ‘social and environmental flows in sound creation’.

Admission to Lisboa Soa is free, subject to prior registration for the workshops and events held at the Jardins do Bombarda/Panóptico do Hospital Miguel Bombarda. The detailed programme, as well as the links to register for the activities, is available here.

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