EN / FI
2024 · Tartu Art Museum, Estonia · 10-channel interactive sound installation
Lundahl & Seitl in artistic collaboration with Jaakko Autio.
A visitor speaks into a well. The voice sets water in motion and returns elsewhere in the museum through a whispering wall. Memories of the Leaning Building connects speaking, listening and the physical vibration of a surface.
Exhibition film and artist interview
Jaakko Autio discusses the work in this exhibition film. Excerpt from the Estonian Museum Awards 2024 television programme, broadcast on Estonian Television (ETV) on 10 April 2025. Video: Tartu Art Museum.
A voice becomes part of the building
The installation brings together The Listening Well and The Whispering Wall. Visitors’ voices are recorded, stored and played back through the wall, allowing an encounter at one point in the exhibition to leave a trace at another. Sound is carried by water and resonating surfaces as well as by the air.
My contribution
I developed the water loudspeakers, the resonator-based sound system for the whispering wall, and the interactive system that records visitors’ voices and distributes them for playback. My work brought together the physical behaviour of sound, the materials of the installation and the conditions in which a visitor could approach, speak and listen.
The work was developed in dialogue with Lundahl & Seitl and the exhibition team. The museum team contributed to the construction and spatial design of the wells and gallery structures.
Curatorial research
Curator Hanna-Liis Kont examines the collaborative development of Memories of the Leaning Building and the accompanying sound journey in her peer-reviewed article How Does Art Support Social and Emotional Learning? A Sound Journey Created with Children and Their Families (Methis, 2025). The research considers participation, trust and learning in work developed with local families.
Read the article and English summary · Full article PDF
The full text is in Estonian; an English summary appears at the end.
Exhibition and credits
Work: Memories of the Leaning Building, 2024
Artists: Lundahl & Seitl (Christer Lundahl and Martina Seitl), in artistic collaboration with Jaakko Autio
Jaakko Autio: water loudspeakers, whispering-wall sound system, interactive recording and playback development
Exhibition: The Secrets of the Leaning Building, Tartu Art Museum, 9 August 2024 to 2 February 2025
Curator: Hanna-Liis Kont
Exhibition architect: Kaisa Sööt
Project: Creative Connections, European Capital of Culture Tartu 2024
The accompanying headphone work, Spirits of the Fault Line, is by Lundahl & Seitl. I provided its headphone system, software, equipment and technical installation.
The group exhibition received the Exhibition of the Year 2024 award at the Estonian Museums Annual Awards.
