The Biennale Son highlights the growing importance of sound in contemporary art. Multidisciplinary, it overcomes the rigid boundaries between artistic disciplines to reveal their multiple convergences. Installations, sculptures, two-dimensional works, films, texts, performances, concerts, performing arts and even silent works in which sound can be guessed in their conception: this event offers the public a rich and varied artistic experience.
Located in the Valais, it is part of a territory where heritage and innovation intersect. It also reflects the central role of the Sound department at EDHEA - The Valais School of Art, a pioneer in the teaching of this discipline for over 20 years.
The first edition, organized in autumn 2023 under the curatorship of Christophe Fellay, Jean-Paul Felley, Luc Meier and Sylvie Zavatta, made its mark with its sheer scale.
The second edition, curated by Jean-Paul Felley, director of the Biennale and Maxime Guitton, associate curator 2025, offers a program that promises to surprise and seduce, extending the momentum of the first edition. Sion, the event's capital, will host the main installations, performances and concerts at La Centrale, a vast modernist building, as well as at the Grange and Grenette of The Ferme-Asile , the Valais Museum of Art, the Lemme and the former Penitentiary. In Martigny, the Manoir de la Ville will be dedicated to Erratum Musical, a project by artist Pierre Leguillon, founder of the Musée des Erreurs.
The Biennale will also extend to other partner venues, including the Musée valaisan des Bisses in Ayent, the church of Saint-Nicolas in Hérémence, the Théâtre Les Halles in Sierre, the EDHEA, the Fondation Opale in Lens and the Musée de Bagnes in Le Châble.
For 13 weeks, this unique event will explore all facets of sound in contemporary art, while sublimating the spaces and heritage of the Valais to offer an immersive and memorable experience.
An art historian and curator, Jean-Paul Felley initiated the Son Biennial project in 2021. Since 2018, he has been head of EDHEA - École de design et haute école d'art - one of Switzerland's seven art and design colleges.
Active since 1989, he organizes exhibitions of contemporary art, architecture and design, and has published extensively. In 1994, he co-founded with Olivier Kaeser the Geneva-based association attitudes, which has presented exhibitions in Switzerland, Europe, Latin America and Lebanon. From 2008 to 2018, he was co-director of the Centre culturel suisse de Paris, a branch of the Pro Helvetia Foundation. He also curates exhibitions at the barrage de Mauvoisin.
For the 2nd edition of Biennale Son, the role of associate curator has been entrusted to Maxime Guitton, a music historian based in Marseille.
Active since 2003, he has produced over a hundred musical programs and collaborated with various institutions and independent venues. His interventions extend to art schools, art centers and prestigious museums. A former Villa Médicis resident (2017-2018), he is currently researching the archives of composer Alvin Curran. In charge of research and artistic programming at the Beaux-Arts de Marseille - INSEAMM since 2018, he also coordinated the Centre national des arts plastiques' creative support programs (2007-2017).
The Association Biennale Son was founded in August 2021 with the aim of creating and organizing a contemporary art event of international standing, in which sound - in all its forms - forms the heart of the event. It currently has 10 members.
