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.

Departure: We leave at 2:00 PM.

What to bring:

• Your smartphone

• Headphones or earphones

• The Echoes app: download the app in advance. Using geolocation, it will guide you through the walk and let you listen to the audio on your phone.

Starting point:
At the fountain in Brussels Park (between Rue Royale and Rue de la Loi), near Park metro station.
Note: this is not the fountain near Kiosk Radio!

In this sound walk Noa Timmermans takes you into Mira's soundscape. Together we walk through memories, thoughts and sensory experiences of Mira.
Noa's voice guides you past resting points in the city, places where we slow down and listen to what is going on in the world around us at that moment. Between fiction and reality, you also hear Mira's voice - their story, their sounds, their way of experiencing.

Sometimes we find ourselves in the middle of Mira's memory, sometimes in the here and now. The connection between place and sound remains.
This walk opens space for attentive listening and sharing an inner world.

Welcome to Mira's world. Welcome to your listening journey.