WHERE WATER GATHERS
In 2026, Sonic Territories works with water as a guiding image of change. Its movements, pauses, pressures, erosion and returns shape the rhythm of the programme, connecting events across selected sites in Vienna from summer through to the main festival period in October.
Taking water as both material condition and connective force, this year’s edition traces the ways in which Vienna itself has been shaped by systems of circulation, storage and transformation: from rivers and engineered urban landscapes to industrial architecture, collective infrastructures and spaces of concentrated resonance. Sound becomes a way of tracing these shifts.
In this context, the 2026 edition develops the festival’s ongoing interest in sound, space and listening through a more local and site-specific approach. The programme moves between sites with distinct spatial and acoustic conditions: public and outdoor spaces such as Donaukanal and Kritzendorf; historical and infrastructural sites including Otto Wagner Areal and the Wasserturm; experimental laboratory settings in Seestadt; an undisclosed forest location by the water; and sacred interiors. Each site transforms the way sound is experienced — through openness, enclosure, distance, echo, exposure or intimacy.
Sonic Territories 2026 unfolds as a deliberately concentrated programme. Through listening sessions, public interventions, site-specific works and experimental formats, the festival invites audiences to notice what is usually passed through, overlooked or unheard.
The programme unfolds across Vienna throughout the coming months, culminating in the festival from 19–25 October 2026.
LIQUID RESONANCE
Collective Exhibition
27. - 29.08.26 –– Wasserturm Favoriten, Windtenstraße 3, 1100 Wien
We look forward to opening the conversation around this year’s theme, Where Water Gathers, with the collective exhibition Liquid Resonance at Wasserturm Favoriten.
Water connects us in ways we rarely notice. At a time when its future is becoming increasingly uncertain, Liquid Resonance invites us to think about water not only as a resource, but as something that reveals how deeply our lives are connected.
Through sound, installation, and moving image, the exhibition explores different ways of experiencing this connection. The Wasserturm is not simply the setting for these works—it becomes part of them, transforming the building into a space where art, architecture, and visitors come together in a shared experience.
The exhibition brings together works by Daria Savytska and Jakob Liu Wächter, Janine Jop, Markus Steiner, Selin Karaman, Tim Löhde, and Yvo Kaufmann, with an opening performance by Magdalena Forster.
Discover the Program
- Vernissage: 27 August, 6 pm
- Opening performance by Magdalena Forster: 7 pm
- Guided tour of the Wasserturm: 8 pm
Location
Wasserturm Favoriten, Windtenstraße 3, 1100 Vienna
Exhibition Opening Hours:
Thursday 27th August, 6 pm - 10 pm
Friday 28th August, 4 pm - 8 pm
Saturday 29th August, 11 am - 3 pm
Supported by
Daria Savytska & Jakob Liu Wächter (UA / AT)
Interactive installation
This interactive installation combines sound, water, laser light and haze to explore wave phenomena. A vibrating water surface, illuminated by a laser, reveals changing wave patterns, while haze makes light visible as it travels through the space.
Visitors and musicians influence the installation through sound and interaction, while cameras project water ripples created by visitors onto the walls of the tower. Together, these elements transform the Wasserturm into a collective scientific and artistic instrument, where different manifestations of waves become perceptible and their relationships can be experienced.
https://www.instagram.com/dashugar___/
https://www.instagram.com/jlwdz23/
Janine Jop (MX)
Striking Earth and Beyond
Sound piece and fanzineStriking Earth and Beyond explores the theory that much of Earth's water originated from asteroids. Blending scientific research with speculative fiction, the sound work creates a metaphorical simulation of an asteroid striking Earth and gradually becoming part of the ocean, while an accompanying fanzine expands the work through texts and visual materials.
The journey of water from asteroid to ocean becomes a way of reflecting on our perceptions of time and history.
https://www.instagram.com/janinejop/
Markus Steiner (AT)
Hidden Currents
Sound installationHidden currents move water along a winding path that folds back into itself. Drawn entirely from field recordings gathered across São Miguel in the Azores, this sound piece traces the quiet cycle of water, rising from hot springs and travelling a long way back to the sea.
https://www.instagram.com/manermusic/
Selin Karaman (AT)
Safe & Sound
Sound installationSafe & Sound explores how we might navigate crisis by thinking through utopia. Drawing on hydrofeminism, the work invites listeners to connect with water as an element that unites us all. If we flow together like water, can we become safe and sound instead of drowning in a vast and chaotic sea?
https://www.instagram.com/selin00aside/
Tim Löhde (DE)
Drops Per Time
Sound workTransforming the humble sound of a single water drop into an expansive sonic landscape, Drops Per Time explores the hidden depths of aqueous acoustics. Through pitch-shifting, spectral processing and dynamic effects, a micro-sound expands into a rich, immersive ambient experience.
https://www.timloehde.de/landingpage/
Yvo Kaufmann (AT)
Potkop Recalls
Sound workA sound piece about what stays within a place and what stays within a body — water and stone answering in frequency rather than fact.
Potkop Recalls began as a simple act of sounding: voice and relational echoes. Water and stone are treated as archives to listen to. Built from field recordings, the piece asks what a place remembers in relation to a carried body.
https://www.instagram.com/yvo.kaufmann/
Magdalena Forster (AT)
ECHO BODY
Opening PerformanceECHO BODY is a sonic performance exploring water, air, the body and organ pipes. Salvaged organ pipes, tubing, metal containers and water form a fragmented instrument activated through breath, movement and physical interaction.
Developed in response to each specific site, this iteration of ECHO BODY enters into dialogue with the unique architecture and acoustics of Wasserturm Favoriten.
27 August, 7 pm
Magdalena Forster (AT)
ECHO BODY
-
27 August 2026, 4:30–5:15 PM
- Please arrive 30 minutes early to make sure you don’t miss the performance.
- Danube Canal, near Strandbar Herrmann / Urania / Aspernbrücke
- Free admission
In cooperation with Schwimmverein Donaukanal.
Supported by the cultural funding programme of Vienna’s 3rd district.