Sonic Acts Biennial, Melted for Love
The exhibition Melted for Love, taking place across Arti et Amicitiae, W139, and Rozenstraat, as part of the Sonic Acts Biennial 2026, explores how the notion of ‘home’ is being renegotiated by climate crisis, colonial histories, and forced displacement. The exhibition brings together installations, films, sound works, and performances that reflect on how land, bodies, and ecosystems are shaped and altered by systems of exploitation. By listening to the echoes left behind, it highlights gestures of love and connection with land and community as forms of resistance and repair.
Set in the historic space of Arti et Amicitiae, this chapter of the Biennial exhibition brings together works that move through grief, dispossession, and enduring forms of love. The Biennial theme, Melted for Love, manifests here through textile lineages, collective attunements, nautical mythologies, trembling river systems, and the regenerative intelligence of mangrove forests.
Dominique White summons nautical myths of the Black diaspora and shipwrecked voices. Nour Shantout weaves tatreez as an embodied expression of Palestinian heritage, land, and resistance. Noor Abed reflects on the collective attunements in the wake of the ongoing Nakba, the systemic displacement of Palestinians from their homeland since 1948. Ameneh Solati listens to the trembling waters of the Euphrates, asking if the natural world itself might grieve. The artist duo HUNITI GOLDOX draw on mangrove forests to imagine regenerative forms of intelligence, and Arjuna Neuman follows drifting wildfire sparks to trace stories of migrant labour and quiet solidarities. Together, the presented works search for traces of love, material and otherwise, hidden within pockets of grief, loss, and dispossession.
Sonic Acts Biennial 2026, Melted for Love
The Sonic Acts Biennial 2026 takes place from 5 February to 29 March 2026 in Amsterdam, with 80 events across 20 venues, featuring work by 200+ artists. This large-scale arts manifestation includes concerts, listening sessions, a symposium, film screenings, exhibitions, masterclasses, workshops, and site-specific projects. At its centre is the Biennial’s main exhibition Melted for Love, spanning Arti et Amicitiae, W139, and Rozenstraat, which will be open during the entire Biennial period, from Wednesday to Sunday, 12.00 to 20.00, and additionally, Monday, 2 March, from 12.00 to 17.00.
Visitors can purchase tickets for each exhibition location, or choose a combined ticket at a discounted price. The tickets are not dated, and visitors can use them during the general visiting hours, excluding the performance events.
More information: 2026.sonicacts.com
