The Listening Project: Translating Public Texts into Visual and Performative Work

The Listening Project took place at the Athenaeum in Old Town Alexandria.
on October 4, 2025

The Listening Project is a participatory and interdisciplinary work exploring how language, interpretation, and embodiment intersect.

The project invited members of the public to submit texts — memories, reflections, feelings, or poems even — which were then interpreted and translated into a series of visual artworks. Each piece became a response: not illustrative, but intuitive, guided by emotion, rhythm, form and tone and conceived as a preparation and a bridge towards movement.

In collaboration with dancer Kate Walker, these artworks were then translated again — this time into dance. The final performance brought these layers together in an interactive event where visual art, public voice, and live dance coexisted and informed one another.

This piece required a “listening in” in a gestural and bodily sense. The artwork has been an experiment in inviting interpretation at every stage, and embracing translation as a creative act in itself.

Anne Lynne Willieme/October 9, 2025