Sanatorium of Sound 2026

"Secret Element of Combustion" - on affect, energy and tensions of our time

From August 6-9, 2026, Sokołowsko will host the next edition of the Sanatorium of Sound festival, dedicated to experimental music, sound art and performative practices. This year's edition unfolds under the theme "Secret Element of Combustion".

The central concept explores affect as an impulse capable of triggering intense emotional, social and cultural processes. "Secret Element of Combustion" is a metaphor for a small charge that - though often nearly invisible - can lead to an explosion of tensions, transformations and liminal states. The programme reflects on contemporary life functioning in a state of permanent arousal and accumulating tension - a world where emotions have become a resource managed by media, technologies and communication algorithms. Sanatorium of Sound attempts to translate these processes into the language of sound, performance and embodied experience.

"We are interested in the moment when passions heat up to the point of ignition, tensions mount toward burnout, and heat becomes the engine of breakthrough. This moment of transition need not lead to resolution, but always leaves a trace. This year's programme focuses on works that treat sound not as an illustration of emotion, but as a real force acting on the body, perception and space. The audience here is not merely an addressee: through their emotional and embodied state, they fuel and inspire the creators" - says Robert Piotrowicz, artistic director of the festival.

The programme features artists representing diverse strategies for working with intensity, embodiment and the materiality of sound - not a collection within a single aesthetic, but a multidimensional map of practices in which sound becomes a space of physical, technological and social experience. The concerts, performances and installations of this edition treat sound as an event: a situation in which the body, p