Winner of the SAM prize for contemporary art 2022 “Stone Speakers” is a site specific and immersive project. It invites the audience to enter a volcanic landscape of mineral sculptures, amid which one can hear the primordial conversations of the earth by way of a multidimensional sound system. Using recordings of volcanoes (made in Indonesia, Iceland, and Sicily), Julian Charrière connects us with the bowels of the planet, seen not as an inert kingdom, but on the contrary as a living, vibrant place. Magma chambers, tides, and tectonic plates all in motion come together. The artist thus convenes different geological entities to form a “parliament of volcanoes”. The exhibition space, transformed into a symbolical crater, amplifies their rumbling, penetrating dialogues – creating an echo chamber at the core of Palais de Tokyo. A live feed of data from global seismic monitoring stations bridge the art centre with the inaudible reality of the underland.