Aura Satz: Preemptive Listening

Aura Satz, Preemptive Listening, 2024. Courtesy of the artist

Winner, New Vision Award, CPH:DOX 2024

London-based artist Aura Satz, whose expansive practice spans film, sound, and performance, presents the Chicago premiere of her debut feature, an urgent and electrifying foray into the social, political, and sonic dimensions of the siren. Since its use as a warning signal for the masses in World War II, the siren has evolved into a pervasive presence in our lives today, emanating from towers, emergency vehicles, and our personal devices. Satz weaves together musical compositions by  more than 20 collaborators, interviews with activists and scholars, and footage of alarm sites around the world—including a high school in the midwestern United States; the nuclear exclusion zone in Fukushima Japan; and religious sites in Bethlehem, Palestine—to delve into the history of the siren and its uses. Satz asks, how can the siren be reimagined to convey the urgency of our environmental and man-made catastrophes? How can it help us reimagine our shared future?

Featuring original compositions by:

Laurie Spiegel 
Evelyn Glennie
Maja S. K. Ratkje
Anton Lukoszevieze 
BJ Nilsen
Ilpo Väisänen
Rhodri Davies
Mazen Kerbaj
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Sarah Davachi 
David Toop 
Christina Kubisch
Moor Mother
Raven Chacon 
Elaine Mitchener 
Camille Norment 
Horomona Horo
Debit 
Kode9

Presented in partnership with SAIC’s department of Art and Technology / Sound Practices. Additional support provided by the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis. 

2024, United Kingdom, Finland
Format: Digital
In English with English subtitles
89 minutes followed by a conversation with the artist

ABOUT

Aura Satz is a Barcelona-born, London-based artist based who works with film, sound, performance, and sculpture. Her works explore a distributed, expanded, and shared notion of voice and are made in conversation, using dialogue as both method and subject matter. Satz has performed, exhibited, and screened her work internationally, including at the Tate Modern; BFI Southbank; Hayward Gallery; Sydney Biennale; NTT InterCommunication Center, Tokyo; High Line Art New York; Rotterdam Film Festival; Museum of Modern Art, New York; Sharjah Art Foundation; KADIST, San Francisco; Onassis Stegi; and Sonic Acts. She has presented solo exhibitions at the Wellcome Collection, the Hayward Gallery project space, John Hansard Gallery, George Eastman Museum, Dallas Contemporary, ARTIUM Museoa, and Kunstnernes Hus, as well as special screening programmes at the Rotterdam International Film Festival, The New York Film Festival, Tate Britain, Whitechapel Gallery, and more. Her films are distributed by LUX. 

ACCESSIBILITY

Conversations at the Edge events have live captions (CART). The Gene Siskel Film Center is fully ADA accessible and its theaters are equipped with hearing loops. For other accessibility requests, please visit saic.edu/access or write cate@saic.edu

TICKETS

$13 General public
$8 Students & seniors
$6.50 Film Center members
$5 SAIC staff & faculty & AIC staff
FREE for SAIC students with a valid ID

All CATE programs are free for SAIC students. Unless otherwise noted, SAIC student tickets are released five days prior to showtime. Tickets must be picked up in person from the Gene Siskel Film Center box office. A student ID is required.

RESOURCE GUIDES

Conversations at the Edge’s resource guides contain articles, interviews, and other material related to upcoming artists and events. Available here.