other speaking cave

Coming back, again and again, to the cave. Between damp walls, under industrial stalactites, a voice resonates: an archaic echo, stripped of language, that overflows communication to become living matter, organic, raw, hypnotic. The vocalises of Nina Baietta mingle with the electronic mirages of Serøja Leonov. Together they compose other speaking cave, a hybrid form somewhere between primitive ritual and sonic science fiction: an archaeology of the future, where the biological meets the machine.

In a cavernous darkness, crossed by a few neon tubes set in metal grids, light becomes an organism. It pulses, reacts to the sounds, and enters into dialogue with the bodies and the voice.

Associate artist at L'Abri – Genève for the 2024–2025 season, Serøja Leonov has developed a practice of the modular synthesizer fed by sound experiments and radical electronic textures. His meeting with the singer Nina Baietta, who explores the deconstruction of language and composes a singular sonic and emotional vocabulary, could only give rise to a performance. Begun in a Pro Helvetia residency in Venice, the work was created at La Bâtie – Festival de Genève in September 2026, in coproduction with L'Abri – Genève.

Concept and performance: Serøja Leonov and Nina Baietta. Visual concept, set design and production: Vania Shatravin-Dostov. Dramaturgy: Jacopo Giacomoni. Costumes: Elisa La Boria.