Mechanical Forests
As part of the European project Die Drei Ecken / Les Trois Angles, Musica, jointly with the Donaueschinger Musiktage, and the Global Forest association launched an open call for an artistic residency based in Sankt Georgen, Black Forest during September 2025.
Mechanical Forests aims to support experimental approaches rooted in specific territorial contexts, at the intersection of sound art and technical and natural environments.
At the end of the selection process, two artists were chosen to develop their projects within this framework.
The project by French artist Yann Leguay, whose work is scheduled to premiere in 2026 as part of the Musica Festival and the Donaueschinger Musiktage, is grounded in a critical approach to the sound medium, attentive to phenomena of perception, listening conditions, and technical materialities. His work, based on stripped-down setups and minimal gestures, creates tension between modes of diffusion and audience expectations. During his residency in the Black Forest, he will develop an energy production system activating sound sources, notably through the implementation of a thermodynamic device, revealing energy flows, transformations of matter, and unstable balances between technical systems and their surrounding environment.
The project by Iranian artist Mehdi Behbudi, scheduled for creation in 2027, is rooted in a situated practice at the intersection of sound creation, investigation, and storytelling. His work addresses ecological and geopolitical issues linked to specific territories, giving space to forms of listening that are both sensitive and research-based. As part of his residency, he will develop a project based on fieldwork in the Black Forest, combining in situ sound recordings, the collection of narratives, and collaboration with local stakeholders involved in forestry activities. From these materials, he will compose an immersive installation that explores tensions between contemporary uses of the forest, memories of labor, and ecological transformations, bringing together sound documents, voices, and recorded landscapes.
These two projects embody the core concerns of Mechanical Forests by exploring the relationships between technical systems, forest environments, and human practices, through situated approaches that position sound creation as a space for investigation, production, and transformation on a cross-border scale.
