Artist, researcher, and cultural activist Yazan Khalili presents the lecture about Radio Alhara, but his talk primarily focuses on cultural structures and organisations – institutional and other – how they are built, funded, maintained, managed, etc. Drawing on his role as co-founder of this Palestine-based radio station – and his artistic practice in which he examines institutions as politicised entities – he talks about how digital radio can function as a structure of cultural production. What can radio offer as an infrastructure of connectivity, solidarity, and cultural exchange?
Radio Alhara emerged during the covid-19 lockdown as a way of staying connected across physical distance, growing through networks of friendship, trust, and shared labour. These relationships became part of its infrastructure, alongside a collective, non-individualised mode of listening that differs from the algorithmic and data-driven structures of social media. The concept of ‘communal media’ emerges from this position between conventional radio and social media, proposing digital media rooted in collective presence and shared infrastructures. The Sonic Liberation Front further demonstrates the potential of digital radio as an alternative network of connection, with stations around the world mirroring broadcasts from Palestine.
-
Sonic Acts Biennial 2026 was a citywide arts manifestation taking place from 5 February to 29 March across 23 locations in Amsterdam. Titled Melted for Love, the programme was visited by more than 21.000 people and featured cutting-edge performances, contemporary sound experiments, and multidisciplinary art by over 200 international artists.
The Symposium, which took place at Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam on 28 February and 1 March 2026, brought together performances and lectures by Yuk Hui, Flavia Dzodan, Steve Goodman (Kode9), Eleni Ikoniadou, Salomé Voegelin, Ayesha Hameed & Aimée Theriot, Margarida Mendes, Yazan Khalili, pantea, Lawrence Abu Hamdan, Busher Kanj, Amr Mdah & Fabio Cervi, and ILYICH.
→ Continue reading at 2026.sonicacts.com
This podcast is produced by Sonic Acts and realised as part of New Perspectives for Action, a project by Re-Imagine Europe, co-funded by the European Union.
","author_name":"Sonic Acts"}