This July and August, the UP Diliman (UPD) Office of the Chancellor will host The Listening Biennial 2023 (TLB 2023) with the theme Listening to/as Connection. The event that is co-sponsored by the UPD College of Fine Arts (CFA), UPD College of Mass Communication (CMC), Goethe-Institut Philippines, and Japan Foundation Manila, was launched on July 6 and will run until Aug. 8.

This is the second edition of TLB, described by its organizers as “a string of endeavours, where listening is in the core as a relational capacity, a philosophical and political proposition, a creative practice and a research framework, which, although initiated by individual scholars, artists, curators, is global in scope.” The first edition was held in 2021.

Dayang Magdalena Nirvana T. Yraola, PhD, an associate professor at the CFA, curates TLB 2023 with Luisa Santos, PhD from Portugal, Guely Morato from Bolivia, and Rayya Badran from Lebanon.

TLB 2023 will have exhibits, listening sessions or tambayans, performances, symposia, and a sound camp that will be held in various locations in Asia, among them, UPD.

On July 8, 11 a.m., TLB 2023 launched an exhibit at the Fine Arts Gallery in UPD. The launch activities included a sound bath by artist Anjeline de Dios, a performance from multidisciplinary art collective Elemento, and a walk-through with the exhibiting artists and Yraola.

The exhibition has three sections and will run until Aug. 11. Those interested to view the exhibit are requested to register through cfagallery.upd@up.edu.ph.

From July 10 to 12, TLB 2023 presents Listening Tambayan, a program inviting different practitioners and audiences to gather and listen collectively. Set to run from 15 to 40 minutes, the live sessions may contain music, soundscape recording, narration, and news, among others. They will have morning sessions from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. and afternoon sessions from 2 to 5 p.m. at the CMC auditorium.

Listening Tambayan. The program will feature resource persons from different sectors and with different projects on listening, sounding, and other related acts.

Also set to take place at UPD are the World Listening Day: Never-ending Gig on July 18, 12 p.m., at the University Hotel, and Bauhaus.Listening.Workshop #2 Sagada/Manila ECHO on Aug. 11, 1 p.m., at the Fine Arts Gallery.

All events will be broadcast by DZUP on July 13, 17, 20, 24, 27, and 31 on the website, Facebook page, and YouTube channel of DZUP, and on the Facebook page of the Fine Arts Gallery. Interested parties may email dayang.folio@gmail.com.

Symposium. TLB 2023’s symposium is a series of talks on the theme Listening to/as Connection. UPD will host the Manila leg on Aug. 2 at the atrium of the Fine Arts Gallery. The keynote speaker at the symposium is Brandon LaBelle, PhD, TLB founder and artistic director. Also set to present are Yang Yeung, PhD, curator of the first edition of TLB; Jocelyn Guadalupe, PhD, assistant professor at the CMu; Giovanni Tapang, PhD, dean of the UPD College of Science; and Yraola.

The Listening Biennial 2023 is co-presented by DZUP–CMC Department of Broadcast Communication, UPD University Hotel, Alitaptap Artists Community, Multimedia University Faculty of Creative Media (Malaysia), Silpakorn University Faculty of Fine Arts (Thailand), Camoes Instituto da Cooperação e da Lingua Portugal (Japan), with support from the UPD Computer Center, UPD Office for Initiatives in Culture and the Arts, UP President’s Committee for Culture and the Arts, Anima Art Space, BMLab, and Drawing Room.

For more details, visit the website for Asian events at https://listeningbiennial2023.dayangyraola.com/ or the website of TLB 2023 global project: https://listeningbiennial.net/biennial-editions/listening-biennial-second-edition. – With a report from the TLB 2023 Asia