artist
Leena Lee & Robertina Šebjanič
Mexico & Slovenia
Leena Lee (Lena Ortega Atristain) is an atmosphere artist, researcher, and designer whose work explores how we attune to our environments as embodied, ecological beings. Her practice interweaves slow listening, field observation, and the affective stories of cohabiting entities through sound ecologies, field recordings, voice, and light.
She hosts the radio programs Sin Superficie, la Piel no es el Límite and The Weight of Atmosphere, both dedicated to active listening, and is part of the duo Bosque Vacío, which has released work on the label Flaming Pines.
Leena collaborates with Arte+Ciencia, a collective focused on art and science. She has participated in exhibitions and projects across the Americas, Europe, and Asia, and contributed to publications on philosophy, design, and sound art.
Robertina Šebjanič is an artist whose work explores the biological, geo-political and cultural realities of aquatic environments and the impact of humanity on other organisms. Her projects emphasize the need for developing empathetic strategies to recognize and engage with more-than-human. In her analysis of the Anthropocene and its theoretical framework, the artist uses the terms “aquatocene” and “aquaforming” to refer to the human impact on aquatic environments. Since 2023 she has been an associate professor at the University of Nova Gorica – School of Arts. Her works received awards, honorary mentions and nominations at Prix Ars Electronica, Starts Prize, Falling Walls., Re: humanism.
Leena Lee and Robertina Šebjanič
FOAM – Sonic Allegories, 2025
Sound composition incorporating field recordings, granular synthesis, and vocal exploration, blown glass.
Sonic Allegories is an ongoing series of sound projects by Leena Lee and Robertina Šebjanič that explores the sonic atmospheres of liminal and transitional environments. The third instalment, FOAM, centres on the iridescent sea foam found along the shores of Jeløy Island, which itself serves as a metaphor for rethinking the concept of nature. This foam—with its shimmering interplay of synthetic and natural elements—embodies the intricate entanglement of the industrial and the organic, across the myriad entities that inhabit our planet.
Through glass and sound, FOAM offers a meditation on presence and absence, echoing the ebb and flow of the sea. As a series, Sonic Allegories investigates sites where nature reclaims human-altered spaces—environments that invite us to reconsider the boundaries between the synthetic and the organic, the tangible and the ephemeral—fostering new ways of listening to and perceiving the world around us.
Commissioned by MOMENTUM 13 Biennale
Glasswork concept and design by Robertina Šebjanič and Leena Lee, realized in collaboration with glass artist Ivanka Pasalić using borosilicate glass techniques.
Sound Environment by Leena Lee and Robertina Šebjanič.
