Glasgow’s Pollok House will open its doors as a ‘festival-within-a-festival’ today.
Sonica Festival has transformed the historic 18th-century mansion into The Listening House – an extraordinary meeting place for experimental music, sound, moving image and performance.
Closed since 2023 for a major refurbishment, Pollok House remains closed to the public while renovation work continues.
For Sonica, audiences will have a rare opportunity to enter the historic house for this one-off, time-limited event (24 September - 4 October), experiencing it in an entirely new way. Across three storeys, its rooms, corridors, gardens and hidden corners will become a stage for artists from Scotland and around the world, creating new encounters between contemporary art and one of the city’s most remarkable historic buildings.
Pollok House is an 18th-century Palladian mansion located in the south side of Glasgow, Scotland. Situated within the 360-acre Pollok Country Park, it is widely celebrated as the ancestral home of the Maxwell family and the birthplace of the National Trust for Scotland.
For nearly 300 years, it has seen and heard generations of Glasgow life. Now, Sonica invites audiences to listen to the building itself, and to discover spaces that have not been viewed in decades, as artistic responses transform the house into a living, breathing environment for sound and image.
Cathie Boyd, Artist Director of Sonica, said: “For Sonica, we’ve always been interested in what happens when music and contemporary art is experienced somewhere unexpected. Pollok House gives us an incredible opportunity for artists to bring sound, moving image and installation into a building with nearly 300 years of history.
“The Listening House gives artists opportunities to experiment, for us to bring international artists to Scotland, and to support Scottish artists to develop and present ambitious work, ultimately creating memorable experiences for audiences. We hope you’ll wander, listen, discover things unexpectedly and experience both the artworks and the House in a uniquely Sonica way.”
Across the festival, audiences can experience performances by artists including Ayrshire-born, Glasgow-based singer Isa Gordon, electronic artist SHHE, experimental musician Thomas Ankersmit, Lara Jones, Sonia Killmann, Alliyah Enyo and Mark Vernon. The programme also includes a conversation with legendary electronic music
pioneer Suzanne Ciani, alongside curated listening tours led by Arusa Qureshi and Femke Dekker, inviting audiences to discover Pollok House through new perspectives.
Free installations to explore take up room after room. Visitors might encounter a flock of mechanical birds, 400 tinkling bells suspended overhead, a vintage radio transmitting radical sounds from Glasgow-based Radiophrenia, or a world turned upside down in AES+F’s Inverso Mundus.
Among the highlights is Sara Vrugt and Ensemble Klang’s Unearthed, where visitors can lie beneath hundreds of chiming bells arranged like the roots of a tree, accompanied by a soundscape from Ensemble Klang. Lomond Campbell’s MŮO offers another kind of deep listening, turning cosmic radiation into music through a unique instrument of circuitry, walnut and filament bulbs.
Culture Secretary Màiri McAllan said: “Festivals like Sonica matter because they bring world class art directly to communities across Glasgow, giving people right here in Scotland the chance to experience ambitious, boundary-pushing work without having to travel to see it. This year’s programme marks a particularly significant milestone, with Sonica presenting its own commissions for the first time, backed by Scottish Government investment. These new works, including Rachel Maclean’s They’ve Got Your Eyes and Martin Green’s Folding Songs, mean that some of the most exciting new art being made today is being created here, by artists working in Scotland, for audiences in Scotland, before it goes on to be shared with the world.
“Beyond the festival itself, this investment supports Scottish artists to develop their careers, helps build skills and opportunities in our creative sector, and strengthens Glasgow and Scotland’s reputation as a place where ambitious art is made.”
The festival will unfold across a wide range of venues and spaces throughout Glasgow, including Pollok House, Buchanan Galleries, Glasgow Film Theatre, The Glad Café, The Hidden Gardens, The Hunterian Art Gallery, The Rum Shack, Glasgow School of Art, Govanhill Baths and Rutherglen Old Parish Church, alongside Tramway.
Tramway will host some of the festival’s major performances and installations, while artists from Scotland and around the world present performances, installations, films, talks and workshops across the city.
All installations are free to explore.
