The icebergs of West Greenland form a vast open-air museum of modern art. Some resemble exquisite works of architectural design; others are strikingly abstract structures.
These icebergs have one thing in common: once they break away from the glacier, where they were formed by snowfall dating back as far as 15,000 years, they are destined to dissolve into the sea. Icebergs embody both magnificent beauty and the sadness of impermanence. This layered poetry finds expression in the Japanese concept of ‘Mono no aware’ – 物の哀れ.
The audiovisual installation ICEBERG captures moments in the life of an iceberg through drone footage, time-lapse sequences and a surround soundscape. Some icebergs are still close to their origins in the Isfjord; others are further along in their transformation on the open sea. Stef Van Alsenoy invites us to pause and contemplate the beauty and grandeur of nature, while reflecting on our relationship with it. For nowhere is global warming as tangible and visible as in Greenland.
The installation is part of the ICEBERG exhibition at CCHA Hasselt (14 March to 16 May 2027).
∙ 19:00 doors open
∙ 19:00 audiovisual installation ICEBERG, Stef Van Alsenoy (Studio 3)
∙ 19:00 sound installation Refractions, Alice Van Biesen (Studio 2)
∙ 19:30 pre-concert talk
∙ 20:15 concert
∙ 21:30 end
∙ 13:00 doors open
∙ 13:00 audiovisual installation ICEBERG, Stef Van Alsenoy (Studio 3)
∙ 13:00 sound installation Refractions, Alice Van Biesen (Studio 2)
∙ 13:30 guided tour: Flagey, Pakketboot & Geluidsfabriek (Korei Guided Tours) (combi-tickets)
∙ 14:15 pre-concert talk: Sander De Keere (EN)
∙ 15:00 concert
∙ 16:15 end
Stef Van Alsenoy is a photographer, sound designer and recording engineer. His photography often takes the landscape as its starting point, but is rarely about the scenery itself. Shapes, movement, textures and the presence of visual silence are central to his work. The Japanese concepts of Ma 間 (negative space) and Mono no aware 物の哀れ (an awareness of transience and an appreciation of fleeting beauty) permeate both his photography and his soundscapes.
Photography and sound design are complementary art forms in his practice, with time as an essential element: frozen through long exposures, condensed in time-lapse photography or slowed down in evolving sonic landscapes. His sound designs often serve as acoustic extensions of visual art or theatrical performances, adding another dimension to the visual context through minimalism, organic textures, found sounds and silence.
In Refractions, Alice Van Biesen explores how to mimic marine life, rather than impose her own sounds on an underwater sound world unfamiliar to us. In physics, refraction is the bending of a wave as it passes from one medium to another. Moving between the familiar and the unfamiliar, this sound installation explores the possibility of a conversation between human and marine life.
“Refractions began with field recordings of marine life: non-human and never quite the same. It's becoming a part of an aural heritage I am only beginning to learn how to capture. I'll explore these field recordings with musicians, and attempt to approach and mimic what we hear.
In a first refraction, the marine becomes human. In a second, the human is sent back into water, recorded again by the same hydrophones I used to listen to whales. Something returns that is neither fully human nor marine: a voice of the in-between.”
Alice Van Biesen
∙ 19:00 doors open
∙ 19:00 audiovisual installation ICEBERG, Stef Van Alsenoy (Studio 3)
∙ 19:00 sound installation Refractions, Alice Van Biesen (Studio 2)
∙ 19:30 pre-concert talk
∙ 20:15 concert
∙ 21:30 end
∙ 13:00 doors open
∙ 13:00 audiovisual installation ICEBERG, Stef Van Alsenoy (Studio 3)
∙ 13:00 sound installation Refractions, Alice Van Biesen (Studio 2)
∙ 13:30 guided tour: Flagey, Pakketboot & Geluidsfabriek (Korei Guided Tours) (combi-tickets)
∙ 14:15 pre-concert talk: Sander De Keere (EN)
∙ 15:00 concert
∙ 16:15 end
Alice Van Biesen is a sound engineer and researcher whose practice centres on the acoustic intelligence of a space. For her, sound has many layers, and recording is a dialogue between the performer, the engineer and the space itself.
Her work challenges the idea that sound engineering is purely technical. She sees acoustics as part of the music, influencing how performers express themselves, make choices and interpret a piece. Through projects exploring historical and architectural acoustics, she examines how the way we listen changes across places and periods.
Balancing control with openness to what emerges, she seeks moments where sound, space and artistic intention come together in a listening experience that engages the whole body.
Inspired by the concert programme of Sibelius 7, film journalist Robin Broos has curated a personal film selection: films with iconic landscapes, instantly recognisable images that have become part of our collective film memory.
from seeing music in colours to experimenting with electronics and making her mark on the opera stage – meet Saariaho
Just as ocean waves surge toward the horizon in a perpetuum mobile, the music in this programme unfolds almost without beginning or end. With eyes fixed on the infinite, Saariaho, Britten, and Sibelius create works deeply entwined with personal experience, the raw power of nature, and the sea. For this Beyond The Score, the sea flows between the notes. Shifting like the tide, orchestral masterpieces merge with the sonic seascapes of Vera Cavallin and Christophe Albertijn to form a single, seamless wave.
