Mochvara Gallery

SOUND ART INCUBATOR 2015
group exhibition and performances
Monday, October 26^th – Thursday, October 29^th, 2015
exhibition opening: Monday, 26.10.2015 at 8:00 p.m. @ large & small hall of Pogon Jedinstvo
The exhibition is open October 27^th – 29^th, from 5:00 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.
free entrance

The third edition of Sound Art Incubator, a production of Močvara Gallery in Zagreb, continues supporting and promoting young artists, who have not yet gained recognition, to explore sound as an instrument of artistic expression in various creative ways. Since its beginnings in 2012/13, Incubator has focused on local young artists, supporting primarily students of Croatian art academies. However, producing and presenting artworks is not its only aim: the project seeks to motivate and encourage young artists to continue working with sound as a medium, moreover in a hybrid context. In only two years, some fifteen young artists and creative authors from Croatia have passed through Incubator, and in 2015 the project acquired a regional character by receiving young artists and students from Serbia. This regionalization and so-far most numerous presentation of new productions has also resulted from a very good response to our call for participants: Sound Art Incubator 2015 has received conceptually mature, elaborate, and communicative proposals that approach sound in a transmedial way and through the prism of interdisciplinary research, which is also among the basic (and perhaps most intriguing) directions of development in the young Croatian art scene. In 2015, as many as 13 artists have presented their work through Incubator with eight original projects – interactive installations, performances, and environments: Tamara Bilankov, Noel Šuran, Mladen Tomić, Vitar Drinković, Sanjin Vinković, Dražen Hižak, Bogdan Stefanović, Danilo Crnogorac, Milica Šolajić, Igor Andrić, Nemanja Blagojević, Ljubica Letinić, and Lana Deban. Ranging from bugging one’s own internal organs to sound reminiscences of an intimate family past in the period of late socialism, Incubator has once again brought to the large and small halls of Pogon Jedinstvo artists who represent the future of contemporary art in this region – future that promises to be intriguing and exciting.

TAMARA BILANKOV: Noise from Papandopulo's Archive
TAMARA BILANKOV (b. 1988 in Split) graduated film and video from Art Academy Split. She obtained her master's degree in animated film and the new media from the Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb and is currently enrolled in a postgraduate programme of comparative literature at the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, University of Zagreb. Active in the art collective Sf Ljubavnice. She has exhibited in various Croatian and international film and art festivals, both solo and with the collective. In her work, she focuses on various existentialist issues, mostly through the medium of the body, and intends to continue exploring these subjects in the future.
http://tamarabilankov.tumblr.com/ | tamara.bilankov@gmail.com

Noise from Papandopulo’s Archive, discusses the life story of the artist and her close family as an image of socialism in the strict sense of the term, which has changes along with the socio-political power relations in the country. The artist grew up in a skyscraper at Boris Papandopulo Street nr. 13 in Split, and her family still lives there. Her grandmother Jelica obtained the skyscraper apartment during the socialist period. She had never completed even her primary education, yet she worked very hard as a cleaning woman and after a few years of work “in the former system,” she was given an apartment. People who live in that skyscraper mostly came to their apartments in a similar way.

MLADEN TOMIĆ: XX
MLADEN TOMIĆ (b. 1988 in Zavidovići, BiH), enrolled in the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering and Naval Architecture in 2010, aviation major. Since 2014 he has worked for KONTEJNER, and spends his spare time putting together machines out of rejected and broken devices. He lives and works in Zagreb.
grmlje@gmail.com

XX, audiovisual installation that explores the connection between image and sound. Inspired by 8-bit music and low-tech devices, with the help of electronic circuits and electro-mechanical devices the work explores new models of modern music production. A system purged of all the complex mathematical operations that are used today for the production of sound (from bridge connector to bleeder chain) generates sound of an imagined wave form.The installation is interactive, enabling visitors to draw the imaginary wave shape on the interface, and an electromechanical device turns the visual representation of the wave into a mechanical wave, that is, sound.

SANJIN VINKOVIĆ & DRAŽEN HIŽAK: Octave
SANJIN VINKOVIĆ (b. 1988 in Zagreb) graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts Zagreb in 2013, obtaining his master’s degree in sculpture. Since 2012, he has presented his work at various group exhibitions and two solo exhibitions. He has also taken part in several sculptural workshops and an artistic residency in Belgium.
sanjinvinkovic@gmail.com
DRAŽEN HIŽAK (b. 1989 in Varaždin) graduated electrical engineering from the Polytechnic School in Varaždin. He has been involved in music for the past seven years. After the graduation, he moved to Zagreb, where he began building stompbox effects and electronic elements for art installations. He has collaborated with Sanjin Vinković on artworks titled Octave, Burglar’s Bell, and Prestige.
drazen.hizak@gmail.com

Octave, an interactive sound installation produced in collaboration between a sculptor and an electrical engineer. The idea behind it has been to abandon the classical method of playing traditional musical instruments and to demonstrate a different approach to producing a melody. Its rectangular minimalist forms are actually a keyboard, on which an octave can be played by touching a metal surface, while the round form serves to change between the instruments. The minimalist forms that begin with smaller rectangles and then increase in size with distance are a simplified representation of the way in which a sound wave spreads. The installation is intended to communicate with the audience – from a single person, who can play one tone after another by moving between the rectangles, to cooperation between several persons, who can play chords by simultaneously pressing on several tones.

BOGDAN STEFANOVIĆ: Frequency Chamber
BOGDAN STEFANOVIĆ (b. 1993 in Jagodina, RS), began his studies at the Art Academy Niš, in the class of Katarina Đorđević, after his third year of secondary education, and completed the first year of studies and the fourth year of secondary school at the same time. In his first and fourth years of study, he won an award for the best drawing at the academy. In the course of his artistic development, he moved from classical drawing to video. In the end of his fourth year, he began exploring quantum physics and this led him to a deeper reflection on the basic phenomena that surround us.
small.reggae.roots@gmail.com

Frequency Chamber, an installation based on audio representations of frequencies as a phenomenon that is present in almost everything around us. Sound frequencies vary in relation to the movement of people in a room. This interaction creates an intimate relationship between people and sound waves, which extends our insight into, and understanding of, the way in which things around us function, showing that what we can see and hear is only a segment of these phenomena.

NOEL ŠURAN: Phonomad
NOEL ŠURAN (b. 1986 in Pula) graduated from the Academy of Applied Arts in Rijeka in 2011. Currently, he is about to complete his doctoral studies in cultural anthropology and ethnology at the University of Zagreb. His artworks indicate an anthropological context. For years he has been interested in non-material culture, especially traditional music. He is involved in several local and international projects in arts and science.
noel.suran@gmail.com

Phonomad, yet another Šuran’s creative quest for the sound of non-instruments and ready-made instruments, guided by the idea that anyone can make music, even without expensive instruments. In the traditional context, it was a necessity (as people had no money), which resulted in creativity. Making music on “non-instruments” – such as tools, cutlery, or children’s toys – means going back to simplicity, communicability, and unambitious approach to music, which emphasizes the importance of non-material culture and renders the divisions between traditional and contemporary music obsolete. Improvisation creates clear contours, shapes the meaning, and narrates the story, while the concert performance in real time is projected enlarged on the screen, which adds to its attraction. Instead of messy (or overly neat) architectonics, Šuran provides a surprisingly warm, intimate, motivating, and tameable experience.

DANILO CRNOGORAC, MILICA ŠOLAJIĆ, IGOR ANDRIĆ & NEMANJA BLAGOJEVIĆ: Sound of the Eye
DANILO CRNOGORAC (b. 1990 in Kragujevac, RS) a graduated dramatic and audiovisual artist, studies sound recording and design at the Faculty of Dramatic Arts in Belgrade. His first sound installation was presented as part of the Black Box project at the Mikser festival in 2015. As sound designer and engineer, he has cooperated on various feature and documentary films, advertisements, and footages. He is also involved in the production of electronic music and has produced more than 80 digital releases.
danilocrni@yahoo.com

NEMANJA BLAGOJEVIĆ (b. 1990 in Kruševac, RS) is currently an MA student at the Faculty of Applied Arts in Belgrade, Department of Graphic Design. He has participated in several exhibitions of student posters and won the first award at the contest for the unofficial redesign of the Playstation 4 logo.
nemanjab604@gmail.com

IGOR ANDRIĆ, (b. in Pančevo, RS) graduated photography from the Faculty of Applied Arts in Belgrade. He has presented his work at various local and international group exhibitions, as well as a solo exhibition in Pančevo. Member of ULUPUDS, the Photographers’ Association of Serbia, and Mensa Serbia. He is involved in art and studio photography, as well as in digital graphics.
igorandric@photographer.net

MILICA ŠOLAJIĆ (b. 1990 in Kotor) received her bachelor’s degree in photography from the Faculty of Applied Arts in Belgrade, where she is currently enrolled in a master’s programme. She has won several awards in photography and presented her work in more than 30 local and international group exhibitions, as well as three solo exhibitions. Her most important participations have been those at the World Biennial of Student Photography in Novi Sad (2013), where she won the second award, and at the World Biennial in Houston, TX, where her photograph was selected for the UHCL Gallery of Art collection.
milica.solajic@gmail.com

Sound of the Eye, an artistic collaboration between Danilo Crnogorac (sound design), Milica Šolajić (photography), Igor Andrić (photography), and Nemanja Blagojević (graphic design). The iris is unique in each individual person, same as the fingerprint, and by transforming its lines and patterns from circular into horizontal form, and then into a wave form, one obtains the “sound of the eye,” which is likewise unique in each of us. This experiment and installation includes photographs of eyes made with macro-lenses and shows the procedure of obtaining sound, as well as the possibility of its reproduction. The aim of the project is to show that, by using one sense, one can gain an insight into the features of another – in this case, these senses are hearing and sight. However, it is the eyes we can hear, not the sight: the audio recording of each person lasts 20 seconds and the visitors can recognize the lines of irises by listening to the sound, making a mental connection between the two. Changes in lines influence the range and level of the sound, which is generated by means of sinusoid – the basic wave form with no additional harmonies.

VITAR DRINKOVIĆ: Communicating by Bodily Vibrations
VITAR DRINKOVIĆ (b. 1983 in Zagreb), took a degree in sculpture from the Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb in 2008 and another from the same institution in the new media department in 2014.  Using various devices, inventions and  installations as mediators in communication, Drinković creates a new context for sensory cognition of the quotidian.  He has exhibited solo and at collective shows in Croatia, Germany, the Netherlands, Bulgaria, Austria, Czechia, the UK and the USA.  He has created five sculptures in public space.  
http://vitardrinkovic.blogspot.hr/ | vitardrinkovic@gmail.com

Communicating by Bodily Vibrations, an interactive installation consisting of four electric contact stethoscopes, which capture bodily vibrations and transmit them into the room in real time by means of loudspeakers. Up to four persons can use the installation at the same time by holding the stethoscope close to their bodies, in the area where the heart is located, and by pressing the switch, upon which their heartbeat is heard loudly in the room.

LANA DEBAN & LJUBICA LETINIĆ: 1956
LANA DEBAN (b. 1979) has been working since 2003 for the Croatian Radio as a professional sound editor. In 2002, she graduated from Tufts University and a year later from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston (audio and video). In November 2007, she completed her studies at SAE Institute and obtained a diploma in audio engineering. She has created and taught a course on Art of Expression through Sound at the Academy of Dramatic Art in Zagreb. She has been editing the Transonica programme, dedicated to documentary sound forms, for the Third Channel of the Croatian Radio. Her audio and video artworks have been presented at various international exhibitions.
lana_gospodnetic@yahoo.com

LJUBICA LETINIĆ (b. 1974) graduated political sciences from the University of Zagreb. Since 1993, she has been publishing in various electronic and printed mass media in Croatia. Since 2008, she has been producing documentary and acoustic-experimental programme series for the Third Channel of the Croatian Radio.
soundfragile@gmail.com

1956, a light and sound installation. In that year, Ive Kulišić, Željko Marijan, Jozo Jonjić, Ante Sutlović, Zoran Sutlović, Veljko Sutlović, and Ivica Strgačić were fleeing to Italy on a boat. They didn’t make it. The only thing known is that, in the night between Tuesday, January 31, and Wednesday, February 1, they started from Veli Iž towards the northern cape of Dugi Otok. The circumstances of their death have never been clarified. 

IMPRINT
Mochvara Gallery, October 2015
www.mochvara.hr/galerija-mochvara, www.kontejner.org
galerija@mochvara.hr, kontejner@kontejner.org
organizers: Culture Development Association "URK" + Močvara Club & KONTEJNER | bureau of contemporary art praxis
curators of Mochvara Gallerz: KONTEJNER | Ena Hodžić & Tereza Teklić
technical team: Andrija Santro, Matija Jelić & Hrvoje Horvat
design: Ruta
public relations: Jelena Matičić & Danijel Badanjak
media partners: H-alter, Kulturpunkt, Radio Student
supported by: Ministarstvo kulture Republike Hrvatske, Grad Zagreb, Zaklada “Kultura nova”