Opening of the immersive sound installation “Māja” by Marylou Petot (FR):
October 16, 2025, 14:00 (EEST)
Venue: Art Academy of Latvia (K2 building), Kalpaka bulvāris 13 (Onsite only)
Installation viewing times:
October 16, 2025, 14:00–15:30
October 17, 2025, 09:00–10:00 / 13:30–15:00 / 17:00–18:00
October 18, 2025, 09:00–10:00 / 14:00–15:00
Another thematic perspective comes through collaboration with one of the RIXC’s longstanding partners, the Goethe-Institut Riga, which this year joins with the French Institute in Latvia to present the Resonances of Nature project, supported by the Franco-German Cultural Fund. This program presents Māja, an immersive interactive sound installation by French sound artist Marylou Petot, created in collaboration with the Nature Education Center at Ķemeri National Park using field recordings of Latvian birds. Based in Paris, Marylou Petot explores the relationship between technology and nature, using electronic media to heighten perception and reimagine fragile ecosystems.
The installation explores the way birds inhabit the world through their songs and underlines how vital their existence and interactions are within this fragile acoustic space. Based on the study of the sounds of Ķemeri National Park, this research gathers a diversity of frequencies and electronic sound patterns, recreating the songs of local species such as the European golden plover (Pluvialis apricaria), the white-backed woodpecker (Dendrocopos leucotos), the meadow pipit (Anthus pratensis), the wood sandpiper (Tringa glareola), the river warbler (Locustella fluviatilis), among others.
Oscillators, sequencers, filters… Each circuit of the installation is hand-soldered, allowing the audience to manipulate bird frequencies through various knobs and potentiometers. Māja is an adaptable work: in partnership with associations and researchers, I adjust the sound compositions according to the breeding or migratory species specific to the regions hosting the work. This installation is a first version.
Māja studies the resemblance between electrical ecosystems and the orchestras of nature, as well as the similarities observed in their inner logics. This work also highlights an apparent paradox: considering technological tools, often at the root of the destruction of life, as potential means of regenerating a nature on the verge of extinction. Immersion in a house of artificial birds-which almost no longer exist in the real world—evokes a strong sense of melancholy and gives our present a distinctly dystopian shade. At the same time, this experience reinforces our need to build poetic and sensitive refuges in a collapsing world.
A French sound and electronic artist based in Paris, Marylou Petot explores the systems of nature within the context of the disappearance of its sensory world. She finds in the electronic medium an enchanting power that stimulates the senses in an intensified way, guiding us toward finer perceptions and interactions. Using technology as a primary intermediary in the study of biodiversity, her work seeks to highlight the parallels between broken ecosystems and electronic interfaces, making it possible to artificially reconstruct and reactivate nature’s networks.