This Fall, Experience EMPAC as a Living Instrument
What happens when we gather? What do we notice as things come together—and fall apart? What can we learn when we treat art and research not as finished outcomes but as unfolding experiments, spaces to ask questions of ourselves and each other?
EMPAC is a living instrument: resonant, unpredictable, alive in the hands of those who enter it. And like any instrument, it has its holes—spaces for breath, gaps in knowledge, openings where something entirely new can sound. These aren’t flaws; they’re invitations.
We’ve developed over 700 projects in this building since opening in 2008. Now we’re entering a new chapter, embracing a more playful, festival-based model that connects local and global communities in new ways. This summer’s TOPOS festival brought nearly 1,000 artists and audiences together for three days of listening and imagining differently. From ethereal chamber minimalism to electronic rituals that shook the walls, TOPOS was a triumph we built together. As one audience member put it:
“EMPAC is the only place where sound can feel like air, architecture, and electricity all at once.”
This spirit of experimentation infuses everything we do. Every rehearsal, conversation, and test is already part of the performance. To share this, we’ve been filming timelapses of our spaces in action—lights flickering, sets shifting, people gathering and dispersing. They reveal EMPAC as a living instrument, and a reminder that everything here is a work in progress. You, too, are part of the performance.
Join us! Here’s what’s coming up:
- We Will Not Be Composed performance with Stevie Manning, Soraya Chemaly, and Xuan — Oct 24, 7PM
- Installation: An Impossible Address EMPAC-commissioned film by Suneil Sanzgiri — Oct 29–31 (2–4PM), Nov 1 (2–5PM)
- Decolonial Practices in Film: Be the Media! with Suneil Sanzgiri + Bhawin Suchak — Oct 29, 5PM, Sanctuary for Independent Media
- Memory Without Measure film screenings — Nov 1, 1PM
- Break Out Symposium 2025 with UnionDocs — Nov 14–15
- Work in Progress: Raft installation experiment by Yanira Castro — Dec 18, 2PM