Listening as Political Practice: Toward a Protocol of Attention. 

Masterclass by Eszter Némethi

“To listen is to give audience — to allow something to act in the world.” (notes from School of Magical Politics Listening Group)
 

Listening is often described as receptive or passive, yet every act of listening is also a decision: what to attend to, what to ignore, what to let resonate. In political life as in art, listening defines the field of what can be heard, remembered, and made real.

Through two masterclasses at BNA-BBOT and a winter school at GC DeRinck we will explore together the agency of the listener and protocols for political listening.

In this first session, Eszter Némethi introduces the idea of listening protocols: guided, collective exercises that reveal the many ways listening can act, respond, and compose. Through a short lecture and a series of practical experiments, the class explores the politics and poetics of listening — from the body as a site of attention to the listener as a public actor.

Pratical Informations :

18th December 2025 

18:00- 21:00 at BNA-BBOT (119 rue de Laeken 1000 Bruxelles)

Language : EN

Fee : 15 euros

Inscriptions by info@bna-bbot.be  

A second session in February 2026 will continue this exploration, building on the findings of the Listening Field winter school and co-hosted with artist Julia E. Dyck.

The Listening Field is a three day winter school hosted by Eszter Nemethi and Julia E. Dyck in collaboration with BNA-BBOT and GC DeRinck and will result in a radio broadcast as part of SON.OOR on the 31st January 2026.

Eszter Némethi is a Hungarian theatre maker and researcher based in Brussels. Her work explores the interplay between language, listening and political imagination, often through participatory formats that create space for quiet and polyphonic expression. She leads the long-running initiative School of Magical Politics and in 25/26 the research cycle Geology of the Real, which focuses on memory, recall and the ethics of listening in performance. She graduated from a.pass and her work has been presented in Ireland, Belgium and internationally.

Julia E. Dyck is a Canadian artist and hypnotherapist living in Brussels. She works with sound, performance and expanded states of consciousness, exploring listening as an instrument for collective transformation. In her practice, she uses voice, vibrations and stories to open porous boundaries between body, technology and the subconscious. Her recent projects relate to queer ecologies and psychoacoustics.

Photo: Lower Levant Company (LLC) installation, “when the ear tells the eye where to look” 2023 photographed by Julia E. Dyck

Sharing moment - 14/12 - 6pm @ BRASS

 - Les Invisibles choir + Claron McFadden + Rokia Bamba

★ Free admission (payable on site) but booking is essential!

« Batômb Batômb ! » is a moment of musical sharing between soprano  Claron McFadden, the choir Les Invisibles (Comité des Femmes Sans-Papiers) and sound artist Rokia Bamba.

This autumn, the Brussels choir collaborated with Claron McFadden and the Troubled Archives collective. Today, they present part of their collective creation based on personal stories about the intimacy and universality of ‘home’.

The basic tone of this ‘home’ is a deep humming that helps us to freely share our energies, experiences and stories.

As part of the exhibition « What The Image Cannot Hold ». In collaboration with BRASS.

This visual and audio exhibition is presented by Troubled Archives. Since 2016, this collective has been working on colonial archives and creating art installations that aim to break the cycle of trauma passed down from generation to generation and create dialogue between different communities.

Members of the Troubled Archives collective:Antje Van Wichelen,  Rokia Bamba, Brenda Bikoko, Peggy Pierrot and Loes Jacobs, currently in residence at BNA-BBOT.

  Opening on Thursday 11/12 at 6pm, with a DJ set by Rokia Bamba.

  Exhibition opening (until 21/12):

▶︎ Wednesdays (2pm-6pm)

▶︎ Saturdays and Sundays (10am-6pm)

  Closing event and ceremony on Sunday 21/12 at 4pm.

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In the exhibition, you can listen to/see:

▶︎ New Hero·in·es , the result of photography workshops with groups of activists from Brussels and elsewhere. They worked on colonial photography, with heroism as the common thread. The aim is to pay tribute to those who were forced into silence and anonymity during the 19th century. And to bring them into dialogue with today. In collaboration with the studio and photographer Silvano Magnone.

▶︎ Listening to DouDou brings together sound excerpts from interviews and work sessions with Les Invisibles (the choir of the Comité des Femmes Sans-Papiers) in a sound installation by Antje Van Wichelen.

▶︎ Radiatio III: two projectors project images onto a large cotton canvas. The canvas is treated with a photosensitive emulsion, and an image is printed on it throughout the exhibition. The final image will be revealed at the closing event.

▶︎ Listening to Images brings together six sound works and images from colonial archives that have been reworked. The project is inspired by the ideas of Tina Campt, who invites us to ‘listen’ to photos and discover what may be hidden in and behind the images.

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+ Sunday 14/12 at 6pm (voluntary contribution):

▶︎ Batômb Batômb!

A moment of sharing with soprano Claron McFadden, sound artist Rokia Bamba and the choir Les Invisibles (Le Comité des Femmes Sans-Papiers). A joint creation based on personal stories about the intimacy and universality of ‘home’. The basis of this ‘home’ is a deep ‘humming’ that allows us to deliver our energies, experiences and stories.

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A collaboration between BNA-BBOT, Troubled Archives en BRASS, Claron McFadden en Le Comité des Femmes Sans-Papiers, nadine, Studio Silvano Magnone, Labo BXL.

A listening tour of Brussels cafés

Every last Sunday of the month, from 5.30PM to 6.30PM, we meet in a café in one of Brussels’ communes for a themed audio listening session: personal accounts, neighbourhood stories, anecdotes and imaginations for the city’s future… 1000 Brussels residents tell the story of their city and create more US.

Theme: Europe in Brussels.

Free admission, 1 free drink.

A listening tour of Brussels cafés

Every last Sunday of the month, from 5.30PM to 6.30PM, we meet in a café in one of Brussels’ communes for a themed audio listening session: personal accounts, neighbourhood stories, anecdotes and imaginations for the city’s future… 1000 Brussels residents tell the story of their city and create more US.

Theme: Student's life.

Free admission, 1 free drink.

A listening tour of Brussels cafés

Every last Sunday of the month, from 5.30PM to 6.30PM, we meet in a café in one of Brussels’ communes for a themed audio listening session: personal accounts, neighbourhood stories, anecdotes and imaginations for the city’s future… 1000 Brussels residents tell the story of their city and create more US.

Theme: Boundaries.

Free admission, 1 free drink.

A listening tour of Brussels cafés

Every last Sunday of the month, from 5.30PM to 6.30PM, we meet in a café in one of Brussels’ communes for a themed audio listening session: personal accounts, neighbourhood stories, anecdotes and imaginations for the city’s future… 1000 Brussels residents tell the story of their city and create more US.

Theme: Cultural Places

Free admission, 1 free drink.

A listening tour of Brussels cafés

Every last Sunday of the month, from 5.30PM to 6.30PM, we meet in a café in one of Brussels’ communes for a themed audio listening session: personal accounts, neighbourhood stories, anecdotes and imaginations for the city’s future… 1000 Brussels residents tell the story of their city and create more US.

Theme: Squares

Free admission, 1 free drink.

For its 25th anniversary, BNA-BBOT is toasting Brussels, its stories, its people, its history and its future. For the occasion, artists and DJs will take over our audio archives and transform them into installations or dance sessions. Together, on June 14 at the beursschouwburg, let's make Brussels sound!

Programme du 14 juin au beursschouwburg

21h : SAGAT (live)
SAGAT est le nom de plume du compositeur bruxellois et bidouilleur électronique Wiet Lengeler. En 2024, il a créé une installation pour BNA-BBOT qui explore les liens entre l'enregistrement, l'archivage, la mémoire et l'imagination, la géologie des médias et les processus stochastiques par le biais du jeu, de la synthèse vidéo et de l'intelligence artificielle. À partir des archives sonores de BNA-BBOT, il a ainsi distillé une métaphore de la manière dont l'I.A. contemporaine traite les données. A l’occasion des 25 ans de BN-BBOT, il transforme cette œuvre en une version live 2.0. 

22h : Les Microsondes (dj)
Quand les archives sonores de BNA-BBOT se glissent sur les platines des Microsondes... À l'occasion de ce grand anniversaire, le collectif de podcasteuses transforme les récits qu'elles ont glanés ces dernières années en un DJ set un pEu bAvaRd : préparez-vous à vous enjailler aux sons des mots de Bruxelles. Ça va ksaar vanavond !

23h : Roberta Miss (dj)
Roberta Miss, alias Nur/se, naviguera à travers des univers sonores aussi divers que la techno, la bass music, la voix et le field recording. En explorant des dynamiques d’écoute et des territoires narratifs variés, elle puisera dans les enregistrements de manifestations et de luttes de la Brussels Sound Map de BNA-BBOT pour convoquer sur le dancefloor des chants, des bruits de foule, des slogans, des fanfares mais aussi des moments de tension et de solidarité.

00h : Rokia Bamba (dj)

Puisant dans les archives sonores de BNA-BBOT, ce DJ set vibrant fait pulser l’amour à travers les voix et bruits de Bruxelles. Une performance où chaque beat devient une déclaration, entre mémoire urbaine et émotion collective.

01h : Où est-ce pe n’este? (dj)

Où est-ce pe n’este? (pronounce 'Wespennest') is a Brussels-based dj-duo (Flor Verdegem & Omar Hobo) serving stingy mixes of où a t’èveur deille file l’aïque playing. Driven by a nonsensical question with no answer, they are on a never ending quest through the local/global underground, mainstream & everything in between. They enjoy adapting their sets to the mood of the occasion (be it at a pub, a poetry festival or a rave), but always keep it playful and eclectic.

17h-17h30, 18h30-19h, 20h-20h30 : SHADOW AND DUST (peau d'archive/langzaam licht) / Troubled Archives

There is a rumble in archive land. Photographs are emanating sounds. Do these vibrations have transformative power?

TROUBLED ARCHIVES invites Moise Ilunga to interpret the sounds of colonial photography and resilience.

17h-02h (non stop) : UN ANNIVERSAIRE POTENTIEL / BNA-BBOT

Cette installation présente une esquisse visuelle et auditive de Bruxelles au travers d’une sélection de témoignages, de souvenirs et de sons collectés dans le cadre du projet Bruxelles Nous Appartient-Brussel Behoort Ons Toe au cours de la période 1999-2025.