Sounding the Archive. Counter-Histories in Everyday Life @ Control Club
Talk & Live set with Space Black & Chlorys
Salonul de proiecte invites you to Sounding the Archive. Counter-Histories in Everyday Life, an evening of conversation and listening that explores how sonic archives can recover overlooked histories of solidarity, cultural exchange, and everyday life.
Developed in connection with the research behind A World in a Negative – a project curated by Corina Oprea and hosted by Salonul de proiecte –, the event considers sound as both a historical document and a site of memory.
During the late socialist period, under the regimes of Jaafar Nimeiry in Sudan and Nicolae Ceaușescu in Romania, official sonic landscapes were carefully managed. State-sanctioned music and cultural production reflected the identities, narratives, and political relationships that those in power sought to promote. Yet just as revealing are the sounds that remained outside these official frameworks: informal gatherings, transnational cultural exchanges, analogue recordings circulated through personal networks, and oral histories that were never formally archived.
Listening closely to this period means attending not only to what was recorded and preserved, but also to what remains absent. These gaps point toward forms of everyday solidarity and cultural connection that unfolded beyond institutional narratives, often in tension with the political and economic agendas that shaped relations between Romania and countries of the so-called “developing world.”
The discussion will explore the sonic archive as a tool for tracing these histories, asking what can still be recovered and how absence itself can function as a historical clue. It will also reflect on the role of the city in shaping sonic infrastructures, the conditions that allow them to emerge and flourish, and the forces that lead to their disappearance. As the significance of these informal archives becomes increasingly evident, the event raises urgent questions about their preservation and transmission.
The evening will conclude with a live set by Space Black (Tabideee) and Chlorys, featuring curated musical selections alongside samples drawn from the project’s research materials. Moving between archival fragments, recorded memories, and contemporary sound practices, the set traces histories of exchange, solidarity, and loss while activating the archive as a living medium. In doing so, it transforms documentation into an act of reclamation, returning overlooked histories to the communities to which they belong.
Program
– 19:00–20:00 — Introduction & Conversation
– 20:00–23:00 — Live DJ Set with Space Black (Tabideee) & Chlorys
Free admission
Space Black is a London-based interdisciplinary built-environment studio founded by Rayan Elnayal and Heba Tabidi. Working across architecture, research, education, sound, and cultural programming, the studio develops projects that foreground underrepresented histories and communities while imagining more equitable and joyful spatial futures.
Mihaela Vasiliu / Chlorys is a Bucharest-based artist, DJ, and researcher whose practice explores sound, listening, and alternative forms of cultural memory. Her work investigates how music, oral histories, and sonic archives can preserve overlooked narratives and foster collective forms of knowledge.
This event is organized by the Salonul de proiecte Association as part of the project A World in a Negative.
Salonul de proiecte is a program focused on research and production, promoting contemporary art in Romania through exhibitions, publications, presentations and debates that place it in dialogue with the regional and international context. Salonul de proiecte was founded in 2011 within the MNAC Anexa, and since 2016 it has been operating as an independent center for contemporary art in the Palatul Universul, Bucharest. Team: Alexandra Croitoru, Magda Radu, Ștefan Sava, Ana-Maria Ștefan.
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