Listening to the City, 2025

In March 2025, artist Maj Hasager and composer Ask Kæreby inaugurated the public artwork Listening to the City at Klostergården in Lund. The work, which has grown out a participatory process in 2022–24, weaves together stories of life at Klostergården with interpretations of the soundscape of the area, by pupils in the municipal culture school.
A group of music pupils at the Lund Culture School were given the opportunity, in a series of workshops at the school and at Klostergården, to develop their ability to listen to, capture and recreate the multiple sounds of the city. The process, which included the investigation, selection, sampling and interpretation of various sonic environments throughout the area, has resulted in a collective composition.
In June 2022 this composition was performed at the Klostergården wading pool. The piece, conveying the interaction between various fragments of sound collected at Klostergården and performed by the music pupils, has a unique mode of expression, different from traditional orchestral music.

On the Artwork

Listening to the City consists of a marked route that may be experienced on the mobile phone with the help of QR codes, a video work in a window at Klostergården Library and a sculpture next to the area’s wading pool.
The video work is a poetic collage documenting the music pupils’ rehearsals and is permanently shown on the façade of Klostergården Library. In addition, inhabitants from the area have been interviewed about their relation to the place. Their stories, along with the sound fragments by the music pupils, are part of the sound walk marked with QR codes. Its starting point is a sculpture by the little wading pool, representing a music stand that also becomes a monument to the work as collective creation.
The artwork, in all its aspects, is documented and described in the accompanying publication.
We recommend visitors who want to take part in the sound walk to bring their own headphones.
The artwork belongs to Lunds konsthall and the City of Lund.

On the Artists

Maj Hasager is a Danish artist based in Copenhagen. Her practice departs from a position based in research and dialogue, and she works primarily with text, sound, video and photography. Hasager is Rector of the Malmö Art Academy.
Ask Kæreby is a Danish composer, also based in Copenhagen. His artistic practice is transdisciplinary and research-based, focusing on experimental composition, soundscape and electro-acoustic music.

For additional information, please contact:

Caroline Lund, Curator of Public Art
caroline.lund@lund.se
+46 45 3594928