Julian Rieken

Julian Amandus Rieken is an artist, curator, educator and writer, working at the intersection of (sound) culture, artistic research, community experiences and ecological and social action. Guided by collaborative, collective and convivial practices, his work seeks to reflect contemporary urgencies and render speculative landscapes that probe alternative future imaginaries.

In his artistic practice, he interrelates sonic experiences with different forms of sensory narratives, gentle gesturing and poetic storytelling as possibilities of fostering ecological empathy and agency. His works takes shape of performative rituals, installations and experimental radio.

He is a founding member of SONIC TOMORROW and was the artistic director of the IMPULS Festival and Forum for Contemporary Music Leipzig (FZML) from 2019 to 2024. He is part of the Art Praxis MA at the Dutch Art Institute and the OPI Lab at the Royal Institute of Art Stockholm. His artistic and curatorial work has been presented at Academy of Arts Berlin, Bauhaus Museum Dessau, Botanical Garden Leipzig, European Media Art Festival Osnabrück, Federal Environmental Agency Dessau, Floating University, Gallery for Contemporary Art Leipzig, Heidelberg Spring Music Festival, John Cage Organ Foundation Halberstadt, MKH Biennial for Contemporary Art, Struer Tracks Biennial, and others.

SONIC TOMORROW (Hanna Grześkiewicz & Julian Rieken) is a collective of artists, researchers, and activists seeking to query the place and performance of political action and activism within discourses and practices of sonic arts and experimental musics.

Guided by gentle gestures, sensory narratives, and poetic storytelling, the collective centres its practice on collective and participatory listening and sounding experiences that are envisaged as spaces for gathering and reflection. The collective curates experimental discourse formats, leads workshops, produces work for radio, develops sound installations, and dives into artistic research projects. They have presented work at IMPULS Festival, Struer Tracks Biennial, Floating University (Berlin), and at CENSE (Central European Network for Sonic Ecologies), among others.

They are currently working on Waterways, a project related to desertification and water control in collaboration with Zeren Oruc, Sakiya and MADEYOULOOK, as well as on Topographies of Resistance, a project which thinks through the Białowieża Forest as a fertile soil for speculating on a borderless future.