Opening: Rafał Kołacki. The Fall of a Planet

Exhibition as part of the 15th Fonomo Music & Film Festival Bydgoszcz, Pomerania and Kujawa

Rafał Kołacki — sound artist, musician, researcher and curator — will present at the Fonomo Music & Film Festival an exhibition growing out of a fascination with sound as a trace of place, memory and human experience. His sound installations show that listening can also be a way of learning about the world.

Sound as a tool of cognition

The place can be photographed. They can be described, painted, filmed. However, they can also be recorded - and then it turns out that his story is recorded not only in images and words, but also in reverberations, noises, vibrations, voices and seemingly random sounds.

Rafał Kołacki, an artist working at the intersection of sound art, experimental music, field recording and site specific art, has been dealing with this invisible dimension of space for years. In her installations, performances and research projects, she treats listening as a cognitive tool. It records acoustic traces of places, infrastructures, records the sounds of the natural environment and the voices of people, looking for signs of memory and stories that can not always be seen at first glance.

Hydrophones, contact microphones and proprietary listening systems appear in his practice. Thanks to them, sound ceases to be just a musical material. It becomes a language, a medium of content — a document, a memory, a witness to the transformation of space or a way of telling the stories of people who remain on the margins.

From the landscape to the experience of exclusion

Kołacki is the author of many projects combining field activities with artistic research. In Echo Grało he looked at the water and acoustic landscapes of Poland and Iceland. ITO tackled the topic of migration through voices and intimate listening spaces, while in the Skunk project he worked with people experiencing homelessness, exploring the relationships between sound, memory and social exclusion.

His works have been presented, among others, during Unsound, CTM and MUTEK. He is also a co-creator of musical projects HATI, Łubin and B_U_K, with which he has released several dozen albums and played hundreds of concerts in Poland and abroad, and the founder of the independent Noisen Records.

At Fonomo Kołacki will remind you that sound does not have to be just music. It can also be a trace — by a place, an event, a man. Sometimes you just have to stop and listen to find that trace.

Partner and sponsor of the exhibition: Tesla Electrorecycling

Start 15.10.2026, 6 p.m.

20 Gdańska Street

Ends on 13.12.2026

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15th Fonomo Music & Film Festival Bydgoszcz, Pomerania and Kujawy

Organized by: Nowa Sztuka Wet Music Foundation

The Main Partner and Patron of the Festival is the Local Government of the Kujawsko-Pomorskie Voivodeship.

The action is co-financed by European funds.

The project is co-financed by the City of Bydgoszcz.

Honorary Patronage:

Marshal of the Kujawsko-Pomorskie Voivodeship — Piotr Całbecki

Patrocinador: Tesla Electrorecycling

Partners:

Księga Ręka Piotr Kikta, Replika.pl sp. z o.o., Radosław Drwencki — Projects, Dawid Cholewiński — music workshops, dreadmaker, Etnodrums, Krzysztof Majczuk Tattoo Collective, Daron Technik, Monde, Art Connections Foundation, Małgorzata Dziemitko

Cooperation:

City Culture Centre in Bydgoszcz, City Gallery bwa in Bydgoszcz, Club Mózg, Velvet Cafe, Rothera Mills, Bakery Bydgoszcz, Przeźrocza Film Festival

Media patronage:

Radio Kapitał, TVP Bydgoszcz, TVP Info, Polish Radio PIK, BIK, Noises and melodies, NN6T, Glissando, Undertone, Culture within reach