Resonant: Bodies, Songs, and Strings, conceived by the exhibition’s guest curators as both a sensory and introspective experience, Resonant: Bodies, Songs, and Strings explores how knowledge circulates through sound, vibration, and listening.
Continuing MACS MTO’S approach to presenting Sufism in direct dialogue with contemporary culture, the exhibition brings together works by fourteen contemporary artists in conversation with a rotating selection of Sufi artworks and cultural objects from the museum’s permanent collection.
Artists: Nevin Aladağ, Rada Akbar, Brook Andrew, Meris Angioletti, Katy’taya Catitu Tayassu, Paula Valero Comín, JJJJJerome Ellis, Célia Gondol, Yoshimi Futamura, Guadalupe Maravilla, Marie-Claire Messouma Manlanbien, Sara Ouhaddou, Vesna Petresin, and Charwei Tsai.
Curated by Elena Sorokina and Simona Dvorak, with curatorial advisors Nataša Petrešin-Bachelez and the Initiative for Practices and Visions of Radical Care.
The exhibition unfolds across three floors, bringing together installations, sound works, and ritual objects. Each level explores a distinct theme: the first, Transmissions of Knowledge; the second, The Resonant Body; and the third, Sound as Healing.
On the first floor, contemporary artworks are presented alongside Sufi objects from the museum’s collection—including rosaries, calligraphy, and kashkūl—revealing the connections between sound, symbolic forms, and meaning.
The second floor engages with Sufi practices of teaching and transmission. Here, featured artists enter into dialogue with symbolic instruments, manuscripts, and poetic texts, all set against the backdrop of the museum’s Persian garden. At the heart of this constellation is the setār, a traditional stringed Sufi instrument, which becomes a powerful metaphor for the human body: a resonant chamber that receives, amplifies, and transmits vibrations that transcend the realm of language.
On the third floor, sound emerges as a force of healing and transformation. Participating artists blur the boundaries between body, music, and spirit. Through multisensory installations and sonic rituals, they demonstrate how sound can mend, connect, and carry meaning—revealing knowledge as a shared vibration.
