Medea(s) – Tskaltubo is Eve Aboulkheir’s speculative sonic study of the Medea sanatorium, completed in 1962, in Tskaltubo, a spa town in Georgia that was abandoned after the Soviet collapse. For Aboulkheir, Medea is a place of ambiguity: monumental architecture gradually overtaken by nature, suspended between care and neglect. Even its name resonates, recalling the ambivalence of the mythic Medea—between healing and poison, order and drift—that mirrors the building’s condition today. Her new work draws on recordings she made inside the vacant building, later transformed on a modular synthesizer, together with ARP 2500 sounds recorded during a residency at INA GRM in Paris. For the performance at the Graham Foundation—which marks her debut in the United States—Aboulkheir arranges these materials into open structures, using spatialization, reverb, and filtering to shape them in real time.

Founded on bubbling hot springs, Tskaltubo once welcomed hundreds of thousands of Soviet citizens on state-prescribed holidays every year. Workers arrived with government-issued vouchers for rest and treatment, while members of the political elite came to enjoy the same mineral waters. Among its many sanatoriums was Medea, an imposing classical structure whose colonnades and blue archways embodied the ideals of health and prosperity. After the Soviet collapse, the complex was abandoned and later became a refuge for people displaced by the war in Abkhazia, leaving it caught between grandeur and ruin.

Reflecting on her visit to Tskaltubo in April 2025, Aboulkheir noted, “I approached Medea as a succession of listening points. The distant croaking of frogs, heard from inside, overlapped with the creaking of doors… the same frogs, heard up close by the pond, now mingled with air currents through the colonnades and the slamming of doors on the upper floors.” For the French composer, Medea is a place of ambiguity: monumental architecture gradually overtaken by nature, suspended between care and neglect. Even its name resonates, recalling the ambivalence of the mythic Medea—between healing and poison, order and drift—that mirrors the building’s condition today.

Eve Aboulkheir (b.1991, Paris, France) is a sound artist and composer based in Paris. She uses field recordings gathered in specific sites, blending them with synthetic textures. Her work often begins from lived experiences of perceptual disturbance—moments when sensory input falters and the world seems to slip. Her compositions emerge from that instability, inviting listeners into in-between zones where meaning destabilizes. She has performed at CTM Festival, Berlin; MaerzMusik, Berlin; Sonic Acts, Amsterdam; Out.Fest, Barreiro; and Elevate, Graz, among others. Her projects include Venus Road, inspired by a nocturnal journey through Singapore’s MacRitchie Reservoir, where forest sounds seemed to sync with the pulse of the city. Releases include Hypnagogic Walks (KRAAK, 2023) and 22/12/2017 Guilin Synthetic Daydream on GRM Portraits (Shelter Press, 2023, split with Lasse Marhaug), a piece first presented on the GRM Acousmonium. Aboulkheir studied at Villa Arson in Nice.

Artist Talk: Eve Aboulkheir discusses Medea(s) – Tskaltubo, revisiting her time at the abandoned Medea sanatorium and how that experience informed the work. She shows photographs and plays recordings made there, then reveals how she modifies those sounds in the studio. For her, it’s change—not documentation—that conveys the presence of a place. The acoustics of architecture become the architectures of memory. Lampo Annex, Monadnock Building, 53 W. Jackson Blvd #1656. Thursday, December 4, 6 p.m RSVP

Since 2010, the Graham Foundation has partnered with Lampo to produce an international performance series held at the Madlener House. Lampo has partnered with the Chicago Architecture Biennial since 2015, contributing performances and programs across multiple editions.

Lampo, established in 1997, supports artists working in new music, experimental sound, and other interdisciplinary practices. Rather than making programming decisions around tour schedules, Lampo invites selected artists to create and perform new work, and then the organization provides the space, resources, and curatorial support to help them fulfill their vision. Lampo also organizes artist talks, lectures, screenings, and workshops, and publishes written and recorded documents related to its series.

Additional support provided by Villa Albertine Chicago, the French Institute for Culture and Education