This event is part of a series – see below for details.June 10, 2026 10:00 a.m.
RIFT, an immersive sonic environment, by Yuval Gur
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Yuval Gur is a composer and multimedia artist born and raised in Haifa. A multi-instrumentalist, he holds a bachelor’s degree in Film Scoring from Berklee College of Music, where he also participated in the Berklee Interdisciplinary Arts Institute, and is currently pursuing an MFA in Digital + Media at RISD. His practice moves across spatial composition, installation, sculpture, and emerging technologies, creating immersive environments that examine how sound is experienced through space, material, vibration, and the body. Rather than treating music as a fixed linear form, Gur approaches it as an environment: something to enter, navigate, and physically encounter. More at yuvalgur.com.
Event Details
RIFT: A Sonic Environment for Multi-Timescale Listening by Yuval Gur
On view in the Main Hall at the WaterFire Arts Center
475 Valley Street, Providence, RI 02908
Exhibition Dates: Tuesday, June 9 – Friday, June 12, 2026
Opening Experience & Live Performance: Tuesday, June 9, 5:00–9:00 p.m.
Experience Hours: Wednesday, June 10, 10:00 a.m.–9:00 p.m., Thursday, June 11 10:00 a.m.–5:00 p.m., and Friday, June 12, 10:00 a.m.–5:00 p.m.
Presented over four days in the Main Hall of the WaterFire Arts Center, RIFT transforms the 15,000 sq. ft. space into an immersive sonic environment where sound is experienced spatially rather than linearly. Visitors move through the installation, encountering shifting layers of sound, vibration, resonance, and light.
Built from environmental recordings made in Iceland, the work draws on glacial movement, geothermal activity, atmospheric systems, underwater tectonic vibration, and magmatic processes. These elements bring together vastly different scales of time within a single navigable experience.
As visitors move through the space, sound shifts with architecture, proximity, and duration. Low-frequency vibrations embedded in sculptural elements extend listening into the body, allowing geological processes to be felt as well as heard.
“RIFT asks how the experience of listening transforms when music is encountered as an environment that can be entered and navigated rather than as a fixed sequence unfolding over time,” said Yuval Gur. “The installation brings together multiple scales of time, from atmospheric rhythms unfolding in seconds to geological processes occurring over millennia, and allows visitors to physically move through those layers.”
Rather than following a beginning-to-end composition, RIFT unfolds through movement and presence. No single position contains the entire work.
This project was developed by Yuval Gur in collaboration with Fabrication Lead Oded Danielly, with additional artistic and conceptual support from advisors Alban Bassuet, Adela Goldbard, Francesca Liuni, Ryan Edwards, and Mattia Casalegno.
Visitor Advisory: This installation contains loud sounds and low-frequency vibrations.
OPENING NIGHT EXPERIENCE & LIVE PERFORMANCE
Join us on Tuesday, June 9 from 5:00–9:00 PM for the opening experience of RIFT, including a live musician performance activating the installation throughout the evening.
Visitors are encouraged to move through the space, spend time within the environment, and experience the installation from multiple perspectives.
Featuring a special Beverage / Elixir Performance by Willa Van Nostrand, whose solo exhibition Of the Essence is concurrently on view in the gallery.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Yuval Gur is a composer and multimedia artist born and raised in Haifa. A multi-instrumentalist, he holds a bachelor’s degree in Film Scoring from Berklee College of Music, where he also participated in the Berklee Interdisciplinary Arts Institute, and is currently pursuing an MFA in Digital + Media at RISD. His practice moves across spatial composition, installation, sculpture, and emerging technologies, creating immersive environments that examine how sound is experienced through space, material, vibration, and the body. Rather than treating music as a fixed linear form, Gur approaches it as an environment: something to enter, navigate, and physically encounter. More at yuvalgur.com.
Organizer
