WITHIN

Initiated with Sharjah Art Foundation and Al Amal School for the Deaf, WITHIN was enriched by the contribution of the curatorial duo Council (Sandra Terdjman and Gregory Castera). A series of workshops were developed over the years including with the school for the Deaf in South Lebanon where they recorded the harbour of Beirut in 2019. Following these years of research, a series of nine experimental instruments were developed.

Conceived as both sonic and sensory devices, these instruments are activated in concerts and exhibition settings, where they invite alternative modes of perception. Their design and playability emerged through a long process of collaboration with acoustic instrument makers, speaker designers, software engineers, composers, as well as Deaf and hearing participants. This collective approach gradually shaped a unique instrumentarium grounded in shared knowledge and embodied experimentation.

In September 2016, the instruments were presented together for the first time at Sentralbadet, an abandoned swimming pool, as part of the Bergen Assembly. Composers and musicians - amateur and professional, Deaf and hearing, were invited to explore and activate the instruments, individually or collectively. This open format turned the exhibition into a space of experimentation, where WITHIN further evolved.

WITHIN was presented in renowned institutions including Experimental Music and Performing Art Center, Rensselaer, US (2015); Berkeley Art Museum, US (2015); Bergen Assembly, Norway (2016); ZKM, Karlsruhe, Germany (2016); Galerie Chantal Crousel, Paris (2017); Kunstenfestivaldesarts (2017); Garage Museum, Moscow (2018); CentroCentro, Madrid (2019); Sharjah Art Foundation (2020); IAC Villeurbanne (2023); Musée d’art de Joliette, Canada (2023); SMAK, Ghent (2024); Cukrarna Gallery, Ljubljana (2024).

Through the year, the project continues to evolve, expanding notions of listening beyond the aural and creating new instruments. Organ Within (2019-22) is a hybrid sculptural installation that reimagines the spatialization, perception, and performativity of the traditional organ. Developed through a collaboration with instrument-makers Léo Maurel and Vincent Martial, the instruments brings together research into historical church pipe organs, modular synthesizers. The installation comprises a network of tubes connecting a computer, a ventilator, and a series of organ modules that interact to generate mutually adaptive sounds. Conceived as an interconnected system, Organ Within functions like a living body, with a brain, lungs, organs, and a heart in which each element assumes its own role while remaining in constant relation to the whole. The instrument creates an open and egalitarian space of experimentation where sound can be collectively explored through touch, movement, and shared perception.

Wind Houses (2024) are listening and performance spaces that function simultaneously as large-scale musical instruments and wind-harvesting devices. The works explore sound at the threshold of audibility, where low frequencies are perceived physically through the hands and body as much as they are heard. Windhouse #1 draws inspiration from the SubBass Prototone, a 2 × 2 × 2 meter organ pipe developed by Johannes Goebel in the 1980s. Originally constructed in wood, the Prototone produces sounds at the lowest end of hearing, perceptible primarily through bodily vibration and tactile sensation. Windhouse #1 was commissioned for the exhibition at S.M.A.K., Ghent, in 2024. Windhouse #2 develops this research further through a new version of a “wind gathering device.” Activated by powerful air currents, the structure operates through a mechanism similar to a flute: air is split by a beveled board, generating deep resonant frequencies that circulate through both the body and the surrounding space. Windhouse #2 was commissioned for the exhibition at Kunsthaus Bregenz in 2024.

Together, Organ Within and Wind Houses form the body of work Souffle Continu, revolving around the theme of wind. Meaning “continuous breath,” Souffle Continu explores the different ways sound can be produced and perceived - through hearing, but also through seeing and feeling. The body of work was first presented at Kunsthaus Bregenz, Austria, in 2024, followed by presentations at Hangar Bicocca, Milan, in 2025, and IMMA, Dublin, in 2026.