Walking Festival of Sound 2024 / Zurich

Walking Festival of Sound is a transdisciplinary event and a meeting point for the international network of practitioners and researchers interested in sound and walking. Through diverse events we explore how walking and listening practices can augment and challenge the way we perceive, navigate through, and care for our shared environments.

Between June 21 to 24 2024, the festival took place in Zurich and offered a four-day program of artist-led walks and site-specific events that explored the city through attentive listening, memory, and reflections on its past and future directions.

The festival opened with a guided tour by Hans Peter Meier of the NGO Surprise, providing participants with insights into Zurich's social fabric, particularly in relation to unhoused communities, social injustice and addiction. Later, artist San Keller invited to join his “Shortest Night Stroll,” an eight-hour overnight walk from Zurich to Lake Pfäffikon that coincided with the summer solstice. Participants were invited to move through the night in silence, wearing sunglasses to identify one another, and ended the journey with a communal swim at dawn. Another event was the “Deep Time Walk” led by Roland Fischer. Participants were invited to explore a fossil-rich site outside the cityamd engaged in an open discussion on planetary history and non-anthropocentric perspectives on life and soundscapes. The following day, historian Monika Dommann guided a soundwalk focused on Zurich’s evolving logistics infrastructure, inviting participants to consider the changing auditory landscape of the city over the past century. Artist Vreni Spieser offered a reflective walk inspired by Walter Benjamin’s writings and her own memories of Buenos Aires, drawing connections to Zurich’s green spaces and the typology of arcades. The collective Stalker (Giulia Fiocca and Lorenzo Romito) led a participatory walk exploring the regenerative potential of cities, informed by their long-term engagements with Rome’s informal urban spaces and communities. The festival closed with a silent walk by Simon Hauswirth, focusing on internal auditory experiences. Participants were invited to shift their attention inward, attuning to the sounds of their own bodies, imaginations, and perceptions while moving through the cityscape. All events were free to attend.

Full program of events can be found here

Walking Festival of Sound 2024 was funded by Collegium Helveticum as part of Tim Shaw's fellowship in 2023-2024.

Founders and curators of the festival: Tim Shaw and Jacek Smolicki

Full list of featured artists and scholars: Hans Peter Meier, San Keller, Roland Fischer, Monika Dommann, Vreni Spieser, Giulia Fiocca, Lorenzo Romito, Simon Hauswirth.