‘Listening All Night To The Rain’: inside John Akomfrah’s multi-channel masterwork

The Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza in Madrid is preparing to unveil Listening All Night To The Rain, a major exhibition by John Akomfrah, running from November 4th, 2025, to February 8th, 2026. Introducing the project, curators note that the artist reshapes his acclaimed Venice presentation into an expanded, deeply atmospheric experience. The title, they explain, references an 11th-century poem contemplating transience, a theme that subtly anchors the exhibition’s emotional tone. Visitors will encounter a series of multi-channel film and sound installations that collectively chart the fluid intersections of ecology, memory, and postcolonial histories.

John Akomfrah’s artistic language grows deeper

Akomfrah’s practice is presented here through a newly reimagined suite of works described by the museum as his “most experimental undertaking to date.” Instead of reiterating the British Pavilion installation, the Madrid version transforms the material into an immersive choreography of images and sound. Curators emphasize that the artist uses bodies of water as structural bridges between the geopolitical stories he traces. Layers of archival footage, dramatic tableaux, and textured sonic environments create what the team calls “a manifesto of listening,” framing attention itself as a political act.

Reframed narratives 

Among the works on view, the cycle of Cantos first shown in Venice emerges in a new spatial configuration designed specifically for the museum. These pieces weave together personal recollections, environmental anxieties, and historical ruptures, forming a dense visual poem. Another highlight is a multi-screen installation exploring the environmental crisis through a constellation of human and non-human perspectives, a project the artist developed in dialogue with TBA21’s long-standing ecological research. A further work revisits themes of migration and diasporic identity, restaging them through slow, theatrical sequences that echo the cadence of oral storytelling.

Shared visions and cultural alliances with John Akomfrah

The exhibition also reflects a longstanding relationship between Akomfrah and TBA21, who previously presented his landmark environmental film Purple. The foundation’s team notes that their continued collaboration arises from shared commitments to amplifying decolonial narratives and centering Indigenous knowledge systems.