What is the soundscape and why are we interested in it? How can I work with the invisible as a visual artist? What does it mean to listen? This year’s Paysage Sonore exhibition in the gardens of the Château d’Esquelbecq raises these questions. The twelve sculptures and visual and/or sound installations created by the guest artists offer food for thought.

Because in our image-based society we learn primarily to see, rarely to hear, the exhibition focuses on the sense of hearing. It encourages visitors to listen carefully to the environment in which they are moving, the Flemish garden, the landscaped park and the greenhouse of the historic kitchen garden… It encourages them to take the time to feel what is specific to it. And then take a fresh look at the soundscapes of their daily lives. The works on display are proposed experiences that enter into a relationship with their surroundings and with visitors. They are to be experienced as sound sources (Anne-Laure Cros, Virginie Cavalier, Mirna Maalouf), revelators (Léa Dumayet) or even amplifiers of the sound environment (Christian Delécluse & Perrine Villemur). They invite us to take immobile journeys through snatches of soundscapes from a distant or nearby place (Dominique Blais & Kerwin Rolland, Félix Blume, Mirna Maalouf), or from an intimate or collective moment in the past (Pierre Ardouvin, Dimitri Vazemsky, Erick Flogny, Bertrand Planes & Olivier Lasson).

The exhibition ties in with 2 events: the Art and Industry Triennial in Dunkirk, entitled Chaleur Humaine, and Rendez-vous aux jardins, a national event on the theme of musicality.