fieldsAlёna Korolёva — Agora

“If I was a birder I would haunt marches and reefs in search of the perfect dawn chorus, but as a city dweller I’m listening to the secret music of the city: voices of passersby, spectacles and meeting points, close-ups and crowd scenes. How to join the crowd again without the fear of strangers?”

“Agora” is a Greek word that literally means “gathering place” or “assembly”. The agora was a central public space in ancient Greek city-states.

Alёna Korolёva is a multi-disciplinary Russian artist who makes sound collages with field recordings. She also works in photo and video art and curates programs for film festivals. She has a degree in documentary filmmaking and has made a few short films, but since 2018 she’s reinvented her practice with sound art. Alёna is fascinated by the potential of accidental or routine sounds made by people, machines, and animals to create music, by the ability of sound to change its power and meaning when put in concert with others. She finds inspiration in exploring the soundscapes of big cities, finding rhythms in chance encounters, using incompatible fragments to create a tune.