Félix Blume. Swarm

Swarm invites visitors to immerse themselves in an experience of radical listening: 250 small speakers suspended from the ceiling each play the sound of an individual bee in flight. Upon entering the gallery, the sound is perceived as a unified murmur—a vibrating mass that evokes the collective power of a swarm. But as visitors move among the speakers, the experience shifts: the singular voice of each bee emerges, with its erratic flight, its breathing, and its intimate, irreducible presence.

Curated by: Jorge Barco

Lab 3

From 10 of September 2026 to 28 of March of 2027

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Artista: Félix Blume

Swarm is a sound installation comprising 250 small loudspeakers hanging from the ceiling, each of which plays back the flight of a single bee. When we enter the room, we first perceive a collective hum, but as we wander amidst the speakers we notice that the mass falls apart and the singular sound of each insect emerges: their breath, their rhythm, their unique presence. With this work, Félix Blume (France, 1984) stages an experience of scale—from the whole to the part and from the part to the whole—, inviting us to understand the hive as a model of non-hierar-chical organization, where no individual is lost within the whole.

To achieve this, Blume did not resort to sound archives or digital synthesis. Working in collaboration with the beekeeper Dominique Hardouin, he designed from scratch a recording studio conceived specifically for bees: an acoustically isolated box with flowers, water, and honey to attract them, and a system of valves that allowed only one insect at a time to pass in front of a highly sensitive microphone. Out of more than 600 recorded flights, 250 were selected for inclusion in the piece.

Félix Blume is a sound artist, field recordist, and sound engineer. He uses sound as a central medium to create sound pieces, videos, actions, and installations, developing collaborative processes that involve local communities in Mexico, Brazil, and other Latin-American countries. He has been awarded the Soundscape Prize (2018) and the Pierre Schaffer Prize (2015) at the Phonurgia Nova Awards, and his work has been shown in prestigious institutions such as the Centre Pompidou, the Museo Reina Sofía, and the Thailand Biennial.