LISTEN. - "The World Is Music" Exhibition Opens in Budapest

On March 11th, 2025 The Listen Project's first exhibition opened it's doors at The House of Music Hungary in Budapest's wonderful City Park.  A 700+ square meter exhibition hall has been turned into a walk through series of rooms that take you to a few of the places we visited during the ten years of filming.

The House of Music Hungary is a wonderful building designed by Japanese architect Sou Fujimoto.  It opened in January of 2022 and includes concert halls, a music library and learning center, a 360º sound dome for viewing immersive content, and a permanent exhibit that teaches about the history of modern day music.  The temporary exhibit hall where LISTEN. - The World Is Music is being shown is a 700+ square meter space that has multiple rooms and experiences you can walk through.  With more than 700 events every year, The House of Music Hungary is an exciting and vibrant destination in the middle of the wonderful City Park in Budapest.

The House of Music Hungary website is here.

Concept

It has been difficult for us to explain to everyone what those ten years were like.  The people and places overwhelmed us on a constant basis.  It is rare on a film shoot to have your expectations exceeded time and time again, but this was the reality.  Meeting artists from such diverse backgrounds and cultures supported our thesis that we are closer to and rely on each other more than many would want to believe.  
So how to put together an exhibit like this that attempts to take you on a journey criss-crossing the planet, going from one amazing place to another, while having intimate experiences with artists that you could never have on your own?  The House of Music Hungary decided to take on this question and has answered the call in a very interesting way, by blending the "experience" with a little bit of structure and information.

For us it has been a very good lesson in how other people feel about the films and the photographs.  We have been deep in this project for so long sometimes getting an outside view opens the door to new ideas.  At the end of the exhibit there is a place where people can leave comments and stick them up on a large wall.  This wall has become a source of inspiration for us and was a great idea to implement into the exhibition.

Music

„Do you know that our soul is composed of harmony..“

„Each celestial body, in fact each and every atom, produces a particular sound on account of its movement, its rhythm or vibration. All these sounds and vibrations form a universal harmony in which each element, while having it’s own function and character, contributes to the whole.“

„We are slowed down sound and light waves. A walking bundle of frequencies tuned into the cosmos. We are souls dressed up in scared biochemical garments and our bodies are the instruments through which our souls play their music.“

There were many times that we too "felt the music".  Music, sound, made organically right in front of you is very different from studio mixed, auto-tuned, highly processed product.  It is real, in the moment, and physically moving.  With this exhibit we hope to at least touch the surface of what we felt while filming it. Surely evolving technologies will help us to convey this message even better, but for now if you can, go to The House of Music Hungary in Budapest and take an hour or two away from your phones to drop into the wonderful world we live in.