‘Sounds of Loss’ to mark International Day of Peace at St Peter’s Basilica

Vatican News

The Atrium of St Peter’s Basilica will host Sounds of Loss on 21 September, the United Nations International Day of Peace. The audio installation, conceived by German filmmaker Philip Gröning, seeks to draw attention to the human lives lost in wars through a series of irregular clicking and tapping sounds.

The initiative is supported by the Holy See’s Dicastery for Culture and Education, the Dicastery for Communication and the Fabric of St Peter’s Basilica.

The installation consists of 1,096 individually recorded sounds, broadcast at irregular intervals over 49 hours. According to the project, each sound represents a person killed in war during that period. Based on 2026 statistics cited by the project, a sound occurs on average every 2.62 minutes.

‘A summons to responsibility’

Cardinal José Tolentino de Mendonça, Prefect of the Dicastery for Culture and Education, welcomed the initiative, describing Gröning as “a true master of silence.”

“In this project, he seeds the fertile ground of silence with short bursts of sound which serve to call our attention to the daily tragedy of the loss of life in wars around our world,” the Cardinal said.

He described the project as “a summons to responsibility”, urging people to “hear the cry” of victims of violence and aggression and “never resign ourselves to complacency and distraction.”

Cardinal Mauro Gambetti, Archpriest of St Peter’s Basilica and President of the Fabric of St Peter’s, said that welcoming Sounds of Loss means offering “a space for listening and reflection on the victims of conflicts.”

The installation, he added, “reminds us of the value of every human life and of our shared responsibility to build paths of peace.”

Remembering lives behind the statistics

Paolo Ruffini, Prefect of the Dicastery for Communication, said he was grateful to Gröning for conceiving a project capable of “awakening us from our torpor in the face of war.”

“A thousand sounds, over 49 hours, will remind us of as many lives being extinguished, eyes closing, hearts ceasing to beat,” Ruffini said.

He reflected on the way the human stories behind war can become obscured amid the noise of everyday life.

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“Each beat, an untold story, a face, a name, a voice silenced, a smile cut short,” he said.

Ruffini also referred to Pope Leo XIV’s invitation, in his Message for the World Day of Social Communications, to think of the faces and voices of those affected by war.

“Let us try to listen to them,” he said, “and to allow ourselves to be changed.”

An artwork built from sound

Gröning said he began Sounds of Loss in the winter of 2026, after reflecting on the number of people losing their lives in wars each day.

“I felt it was time to raise the fact of wars killing humans every 2.6 minutes back into our awareness,” he said.

The filmmaker explained that the project was conceived as an artistic response to something that is often difficult to grasp through statistics alone.

“Images are fleeting,” Gröning said. “Repetition and sound may be more persistent.”

Over three months, the project recorded more than 24,000 samples of clicking, knocking and banging noises. The sounds were drawn from 50 categories, including light switches, old telegram machines, clocks, door locks, cardboard boxes and pencils on tables.

These recordings were then assembled into 49 hours containing 1,096 sounds. Gröning said he was grateful for the Vatican’s support and looked forward to the continuation of Sounds of Loss through 2031.

Irregular sounds across the world

The clicks are intentionally irregular, sometimes appearing in clusters and at other times giving way to silence. Their volume also varies, with some sounds quiet and others much louder.

According to the project, these variations are intended to reflect the unequal attention often given to victims of war according to cultural, religious or racial factors.

The 49-hour intervention is designed to encompass 21 September across all time zones, beginning in Kiribati and concluding on Baker Island.

Other places of worship are also supporting the initiative, including the Cathedral of St John the Divine in New York City and the Cathedral of Santa Maria Matricolare in Verona.

The Vatican News website will provide a live online connection to St Peter’s Square linked to the Sounds of Loss audio during 20 and 21 September.