︎







Cosmoaudiciones is an artistic  research project by artist Miguel Buenrostro that explores the relationship between the Berlin Phonogramm Archiv’s sound archive and the rhythms and music that traveled from the Atlantic to the Caribbean and the Americas. The project is inspired by the idea of cosmoaudición, proposed by linguist Carlos Lenkersdorf, which suggests a way of experiencing the world from a position of listening.

Cosmoaudiciones initially emerged as a proposal to question the major German ethnographic collections, exploring ways to rethink current approaches to the repatriation and restitution of objects to former German colonies in Africa, and taking a step toward imagining the possibility of sonic restitution, starting from these sound collections. The research offers a critical reflection on sonic extraction—the act of capturing music and voices to be collected in the Royal Museum of Ethnology.

As part of the program’s activities, the project proposes going beyond material restitution toward a form of re-socializing memory, meaning, and rhythm. Musicians from diverse communities are invited to take part in a program of listening sessions, improvisational concerts, and musical lectures.

In our collective listening, we understand the sound archive as a space of imagination and experimentation—listening to soundscapes, oral histories, rhythms, and harmonies from various recordings, recognizing sound routes and the trajectories of multiple migrations. From an ethics of listening, we question Western categories of so-called “world music” and the essentialist perspectives on regionalisms that XIX century comparative ethnomusicology once used to define the “origins” of music.


On re-socializing musical worlds



How can we restore time from the extracted worlds of meaning?
How can we ‘sound’ the archive with dignity?
How can we re-socialize that which remains absent from the archive?
How can listening practices move us towards re-futuring musical world?

In 2025,  the artist Miguel Buenrostro has invited participants 
 Laura Robles, Kunt Vargas, Sofia Escamilla, Fernando Vigueras, Rolando Hernández to reflect on selected materials from the Berlin Phonogramm Archiv which will take part in Mexico City at the Museo Experimental el Eco. 

Design by Guido Flichman
Cosmoaudiciones is a project funded by 99 Questions program, curated by Michael Dieminger and was previously supported by the Berlin Senate for Culture in 2022.




︎︎




                     





                 

  © Copyright Miguel Buenrostro 2022, All Rights Reserved