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Originally created for the Luxembourg Pavilion at the 60th Venice Biennale in 2024, A Comparative Dialogue Act is the result of an ongoing collaboration between artist and musician Andrea Mancini (1989, Luxembourg) and the multidisciplinary Brussels-based collective Every Island (Alessandro Cugola, Astrid Lykke Nielsen, Caterina Malavolti, Juliane Seehawer and Martina Genovesi). At the intersection of visual art, performance and sound, the exhibition turns into an experimental site in which guest artists hosted by Mancini and Every Island create new performative pieces drawing from a shared sonic library. The result is a collective artwork in which sound, space and body intertwine as the floor and glass panels on wheels act as speakers. The resonating architecture and objects contribute to an immersive experience in a shared sensory field.
In Venice in 2024, four international artists started an experimental living archive consisting of numerous sonic fragments provided by each one of them – ranging from snippets of recorded previous performances, newly made digital tunes, field recordings, and spoken word. During their short residencies, the pavilion was accessible for audiences to witness the evolution of this collective creation.
Over the course of Mudam’s exhibition, four newly invited artists expand this library by reworking it once more. During their short residencies – similarly consisting of production, experimentation and performances – each participant presents new pieces integrating material from the library assembled by all eight contributors. During the intervals between live events, recordings of the newly created pieces are played, alternating with a selection of library fragments.
A Comparative Dialogue Act brings together a line-up of positions to probe the potential of sound as a medium for creative negotiation, intervention and cross-pollination. By combining live and archival elements, a dialogue comes to life, nourished by the ever-shifting exchanges between artists who never met yet connect on this experimental platform through the shared language of music.
Guest artists at Mudam:
Cucina Povera
Performance: 25 September 2025, 20:30 (exhibition opening)
Production phase: 26 September 2025, all day
Performance: 27 September 2025, 16:30
bela
Production phase: 6–7 November 2025, all day
Performances: 8–9 November 2025, 16:30
Katarina Gryvul
Production phase: 11–12 December 2025, all day
Performances: 13–14 December 2025, 16:30
Thomas Lea Clarke
Production phase: 15–16 January 2026, all day
Performances: 17–18 January 2026, 16:30
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Biographies
Andrea Mancini (b. 1989) is a Brussels-based, Italian Luxembourgish artist and musician. His work explores the intersections of sound, space, and materiality, transforming overlooked materials into resonating, performative surfaces. Using sensorial mediums, sculptural and spatial interventions, he creates environments that invite active engagement and embodied listening. His installations blur the boundaries between architecture, sound, and presence – spaces that respond to movement, vibration, and proximity. Whether activated by himself or others, they become sites of sensory tension, dialogue, and shared experience, challenging how we inhabit and perceive the built world.
Every Island is a collective founded in Brussels in 2021. Their spatial research focuses on the role of performativity in architecture, which translates into volatile building projects, design and installations. Each projects develops space to enable unforeseen uses, thus questioning inherited binary and normative models. Space becomes a design tool to negotiate an expanded common ground, where perception, action and projection operate as a single field. The work of the collective has been shown in several institutions and performative arts festivals, including International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia (2024), BOZAR, Brussels (2023), Santarcangelo Festival dei Teatri, Santarcangelo di Romagna (2022) and VIERNULVIER, Ghent (2022), and Mudam Luxembourg (2022). It currently consists of Martina Genovesi, Alessandro Cugola, Caterina Malavolti, Juliane Seehawer and Astrid Lykke Nielsen.
Finnish Luxembourgish musician Maria Rossi started their solo project, Cucina Povera, in 2017 and previously produced, composed and performed as part of Luxos with Daniel Magee (Lo Kindre), Green Door Studios' NEET and Tarantula band in Glasgow. They did audiovisual collaborations with Roos Dijkhuizen, Mary Hurrell and Katie Shannon and released LPs on labels including Night School, BAKK, Editions Mego and Primordial Void. Rossi did live appearances and mixes among others for BBC3, BBC6, NTS and Radio Raheem. They have done artist residencies in three national parks in the South of France with choreographer Frank Micheletti; and at WORM, Rotterdam; Hallo Festspiele, Hamburg; and Intonal Festival in Malmö with Emanuel Sundin and Maja Li Härdelin for SHAPE+ platform. They created commissions for Radiophrenia, Glasgow; Sonica, Glasgow; and Performa/Pioneer Works, NYC. Rossi performed in thirty countries worldwide.
Originally from South Korea, bela is a musician, performance artist and DJ based in Berlin and Prague. In addition to their work as a musician and performance artist, bela also collaborates on audio visual performances with Theresa Baumgartner and Lukas Feigelfeld and performs improvised vocals with AKA HEX (Aïsha Devi and Slikback). Their solo and collaborative live performances have been featured at Berlin Atonal; Trauma Bar und Kino, Berlin; Nowadays, NYC; Schauspielhaus Zürich; Lunchmeat, Prague; Cafe OTO, London; CTM Festival, Berlin; Ephemera, Warsaw; and Unsound Kraków. As a DJ, bela debuted in Seoul's underground scene in 2017 at Cakeshop and have since played at clubs like Tresor, Berlin; Säule, Berlin; ALL, Shanghai; and Ankali's Planeta Za, Prague. bela co-runs Sorrow Club, an event series combining music and non-music formats. They were nominated for the SHAPE+ Platform 2023-24.
Thomas Lea Clarke is a sound artist and electronic musician, born in Luxembourg and based in Berlin. He has released music on multiple record labels including Optimo Music, Offen Music, Neubau and Knekelhuis. He also runs Phase Group, a record label and platform dedicated to experimental and avant-garde electronic music. His work has been presented in a range of contexts across Europe, including exhibitions and performances at Casino Forum D’Art Contemporain, Luxembourg; Hošek Contemporary, Berlin; Silent Green, Berlin; Berghain, Berlin; Tramway, Glasgow; Fuse Art Space, Bradford; and Cafe OTO, London. He is currently pursuing a master’s degree in Sound Studies and Sonic Arts at the Universität der Künste Berlin, where he continues to develop his interest in the poetics of sound, spatiality, and the political and cultural dimensions of listening.
Ukranian-born, Krakow-based Katarina Gryvul studied in Lviv and Krakow at the Music Academy – Violin Performance and Composition. Currently, she is doing a MA Computer Music and Sound Art at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Graz. In addition to her artistic practice, Gryvul is the founder of Gryvul School, an initiative dedicated to sharing her expertise with musicians worldwide. The school supports students and professionals, encouraging their growth and exploration of new possibilities. Gryvul is a Member of the first music catalogue of Ukrainian music; is a participant of Gaude Polonia — scholarship of the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Poland; participated in the 37th General Assembly of the International Confederation of Electroacoustic Music. She has won the Scholarship of the President of Ukraine for young artists and writers; has won the Grand Prix of music and sound design "Power of Young"; and was selected as an artist of SHAPE+ platform 2022/2023. Her pieces were performed at festivals including Warsaw Autumn; Ars Electronica, Linz; Rewire, The Hague; CTM, Berlin; ZKM, Karlsruhe; Nuits Sonores, Lyon; Skaņu Mežs, Riga; Sanatorium of Sound, Sokołowsko.
