Warsaw
Experiment
Studio
curator Marek Chołoniewski
parcitipates
Chris Cutler
Marek Chołoniewski
Piotr Madej
Project FoMaTi
Buy ticket26th September 2023 | 8:00 PM
Przestrzeń Muzyki Współczesnej Hashtag Lab ul. Barska 29.
Folded Maps of Time is an immersive audio-visual work for live performance that integrates biosensoric electromagnetic systems (MC) and object-oriented electrified percussion (CC). The audience will be surrounded by a multichannel sound and video system, as if inside a living organism, or virtual brain, with multiple inlets, outlets, channels and infinite chaotic entanglements: these are our folded maps of time; a flux of unstable memories and constant flow. Brain activity will be projected as a virtual floating model of in a collage of graphic forms, photographs, B&W videos and live real-time images, macro and microscopic. Ambisonic surround-sound projection will map an analogue internal brain – this being one critical core of the performing system, since biofeedback plays a significant role in all aspects of the performance: selected brain waves (delta, theta, alfa, beta, gamma, meditation, attention, raw data) being used as both readers and processors of performer behavior to mediate the subconscious and intuitive selection of prepared, pre-composed and performed materials. Against the intuitive stands the deliberative - as brainwave-driven sounds and images are interpreted and interleaved in real-time by sounds physically and intentionally generated by a second performer using electronically processed and spatialised percussion – the sum feeding back organically, or contrarily, into the monitored state of mind of the first performer. Thus brain biofeedback will be multiplied and extended in performance through a mélange of voluntary and involuntary feedbacks, occasioning cascades of reaction from both performers. This commission offers a unique collaboration between the Polish composer and artist Marek Chołoniewski and the British percussionist and composer, Chris Cutler, integrating Chołoniewski's award-winning audio and audio-visual work in electroacoustic performance, and Cutler's history of creating vanguard works across multiple genres using extended instruments and techniques.
FoMaTi was produced in frame of +100 Three visions of emerging avant-garde as part of Polska 100 – a project of Adam Mickiewicz Institute which is responsible for international celebrations program of the Polish independence centenary. +100 has been conceived by Roderick Coover, and produced and co-curated by Katarzyna Boratyn under the institutional direction of Anna Szylar at the Adam Mickiewicz Institute.
Marek Chołoniewski is a composer, sound artist, performer and professor. Founder and co-founder of many groups including Freight Train (with Piotr Bikont and Krzysztof Knittel), Studio MCH, DoubleMark (with Mark Polishook), CH&K&K (with Krzysztof Knittel and Włodzimierz Kiniorski), mc2 duo (with M.Chyrzyński), Infinity Quartet (with Keir Neuringer, Ryan Zawel and Rafał Mazur), Natural Plastic (with Amy Knoles), Kinetic Trio (with Włodzimierz Kiniorski and Rafał Mazur), dizzy kinetics (with Łukasz Szalankiewicz), and Infinity Trio (with Miłosz Łuczyński and Łukasz Szalankiewicz), which gives concerts and records albums. Since 2008, Secretary, and since 2011 - President of International Confederation for Electroacoustic Music CIME/ICEM. Since 2010, Director of Audiosphere Lab at the Intermedia Department of the Jan Matejko Academy of Fine Arts in Kraków. In 2012, cofounder of GrupLab, a scientific-art collective.
fot. Klaudyna Schubert
Folded Maps of Time Performance by Marek Chołoniewski & Chris Cutler
Chris Cutler is a member of the British experimental group Henry Cow for 10 years, founder or co-founder of a series of mixed national groups including Art Bears, News from Babel, Cassiber, The (ec) Nudes, p53, and The Science Group, and former permanent member of American bands Pere Ubu, Hail and The Wooden Birds. He has worked with dance, film, hoerspiel, symphony orchestras, theatre and radio, toured the world as a soloist with his extended electrified kit and appeared in countless contexts as a member of the international improvising community. In 2003/4 he ran a daily year-long soundscape project for Resonance FM. He founded and runs the independent label ReR Megacorp and authored the theoretical collection File Under Popular - as well as numerous articles and papers, published in 16 languages. He was on faculty at the Museum School in Boston and lectures irregularly on theoretical and music related topics worldwide. He is currently producing a series of monthly radio lectures for the Museum of Modern Art, Barcelona.
photo Henryk Silhouette
Piotr Madej - media arPst, composer and sound engineer, member of the Polish AssociaPon of ElectroacousPc Music, member of the arPsPc research collecPve GrupLab, double scholarship holder of the Minister of Culture and NaPonal Heritage in 2017 and 2019, associated with the Audio Art FesPval, APTEKA Janicki Gallery, it also cooperates with Kraków Film Klaster and the EPuda & Anima fesPval. He graduated from Intermedia at the Academy of Fine Arts. Jan Matejko in Krakow, currently studying at the Doctoral School at the Academy of Fine Arts in Krakow. He works as an assistant in the Audiosphere studio at the Intermedia Department, run by prof. dr hab. Marek Chołoniewski.
photo Beata Madej
curator Adam Radź
parcitipates
Rie Nakajima
Graham Lambkin
11th October 2023 | 8:00 PM
Przestrzeń Muzyki Współczesnej Hashtag Lab ul. Barska 29.
Situational, 'site-specific' approach to sound addressing space and circumstances. Invited guests include a British multidisciplinary artist, Graham Lambkin and a Japanese sculptor Rie Nakajima, who combines architecture and sound. In their work, both of them remain open to randomness and the influence of the audience, thanks to which the created sound situation preserves its organic, human aspect; the natural occurrence of the event, and the presented work are not a cold, exhibited gallery/concert product, but a live and unpredictable sound experience, in which spatial interferences and sounds, coming from third parties, do not exclude, but enrich it. In his musical practice, Graham Lambkin uses transformational experiments on the piano and other acoustic instruments, as well as electroacoustic sound collages from field recordings, dialogues and everyday noises. All of it together creates a cohesive and extremely intimate, almost haunted sonic area. In his installations and performances, Rie Nakajima corresponds and reacts to the physicality of space, using a combination of randomly found objects with mechanized devices. Both of these acts will focus on the acoustics of space, reducing it to the impression of an overly physical, peculiar confrontation with sound, while maintaining a technology-free, human perspective of the creative process.
Adam Radź - curator of the nomadic series of sonic-fiction concerts, radio presenter, enthusiast of daylong strolls, field recordings, sound collage artist, occasional performer. His sonic-fiction program resounds on the waves of Warsaw's Radio Kapitał from the beginning of its existence, he also has residencies at the French LYL Radio (2023) and the Czech Radio Punctum (2022). He lives in a constant journey, and apart from Polish festivals, he revolves his life around series of events to which he was invited and those he led himself, he also performed in Norway, Portugal, the Czech Republic, Germany and the Netherlands during his stays abroad. For years he has been associated with Farby in Poznań, Mózg in Bydgoszcz and Sokołowsko.
Rie Nakajima is a a sculptor living in London. She has been working on creating installations and performances by responding to physical characters of spaces using combination of motorised devices and found objects. Fusing sculpture and sound, her artistic practice is open to chance and the influence of others. She has exhibited and performed worldwide. Her first major solo exhibition was held at IKON Gallery in Birmingham in 2018. She has also collaborated with Museo Vostell Malpartida (Cáceres), Tate Modern (London), Serralves Museum (Porto), ShugoArts (Tokyo), Hara Museum (Tokyo), The Wattis (San Francisco) and Cafe OTO (London). Her frequent collaborators includes David Cunningham, Keiko Yamamoto, Pierre Berthet, Marie Roux, Billy Steiger, David Toop, Akira Sakata among others.
photo Hana Knizova
Six Cans, 4'09" by Rie Nakajima
Graham Lambkin (b. 1973) is a London based multidisciplinary artist and publisher whose work embraces audio, visual and text-based concerns. Lambkin was a founding member of the seminal English underground group The Shadow Ring who between 1992-2002 explored the possibilities of fusing amateur folk music, cracked electronics and surreal wordplay into a unique and unsettling hybrid that continues to exert an influence today. Following the dissolution of The Shadow Ring Lambkin embarked on a run of critically acclaimed solo recordings including Salmon Run (2007), Amateur Doubles (2011) and Community (2016) as well as a series of collaborative projects with the likes of Joe McPhee, Keith Rowe, Moniek Darge, Michael Pisaro and Áine O'Dwyer. Lambkin was also the founder of the Kye label who between 2001- 2016 published over 60 new audio works by artists as diverse of Philip Corner, Gabi Losoncy, Vanessa Rossetto and Malcolm Goldstein as well as significant archival collections by Anton Heyboer, Moniek Darge, Joe McPhee and Henning Christiansen.
curator Anna Jędrzejewska
parcitipates
Sofia Borges
Katarzyna Markowska
Anna Jędrzejewska
8th November 2023 | 8:00 PM
Przestrzeń Muzyki Współczesnej Hashtag Lab ul. Barska 29.
As a curator, I aim to invite female artists interested in deconstructing the notion of absolute music to collaborate and experiment. I understand this as a search for an open paradigm of values. Theories regarding the formation of connections, Bruno Latour's actor-network theory, resonate with the performative formula, improvisational techniques, and electronic sound processing.
In the project "Pulse of Life," the artists are situated at two symmetrical ends of the room, with the figure of the performer in the center. The process of capturing sounds from movement and improvisation based on this pattern forms the main axis of the presentation.
Anna Jędrzejewska
Composer, pianist, interdisciplinary artist, improviser, director, movie editor, Anna Jędrzejewska has authored and taken part in projects such as installations and multimedia performances in her native country and abroad. Anna Jędrzejewska studied composition with Bogusław Schaeffer at the Academy of Music in Krakow and multimedia sculpture with Antoni Porczak at the Academy of Fine Arts in Krakow. She graduated in film directing and editing from the Academy of Film and Television in Warsaw. She is experienced in performing contemporary composition as well as piano improvisation. She perfected her skills at music courses in Darmstadt, Stuttgart and Krakow and with professors Adam Kaczyński, Krystyna Moszumańska-Nazar and Marek Chołoniewski. Anna organized Fortalicje and Intuitiva intuitive art festivals, and co-organized the New Art Conference as well as Supersam Plus 1 and Mózg Festival festivals. At Salulu duo she created Video Score and Energetic Resonance—improvised opera projects blending video, electronics and improvisation, presented at Darmstädter Ferienkurse and Warsaw Autumn festival, among others. She also conducts workshops and co-organizes the Intuitive Music Conference devoted to performance, graphic scores, dance, and multidisciplinary improvisation. Jędrzejewska’s art is based on improvisation rooted in the classic works of 20th century European art, and blends music, multimedia and electronics. The axis of her research is the inadequacy of music notation for the purposes of intuitive music, and the use of the video medium as a score. Current projects, such as Suparastral, Umbra, Hybrid or Somatic recycling, are improvised musical performances based on electronics and transformations, in a video installation.
photo Małgorzata Kaznowska
Katarzyna Markowska - movement theater actress, performer and teacher of ha-tha yoga. Scholarship holder at Exeter University in the UK (Department of Applied Drama). In the years 2005-2010 she studied at the Pantomime Studio at the Teatr na Woli and performed at the Mimo Theatre. A great inspiration in its development was the meeting with the Wrocław Pantomime Theater and its actors. Originator and founder of the Art of the Body Foundation (2009). FSC organizes various events (performances, happenings, workshops) where the main means of expression is movement. The viewers are both adults ("Woman Calendar", "Rój", "Unsticking") and children ("Important Matters", "Star, Wars and Sawa", "Five Failures"). She also cooperated with the Drama Way Foundation, implementing projects involving the local community, with the Center for Women's Rights co-creating a therapeutic theater, with the Music is for Everyone Foundation running workshops as part of the Labirynt Action. From 2020, in cooperation with Anna Jędrzejewska, she co-created the "Korposhamanism" and "Hybrid" projects. Currently, he is implementing a project in Warsaw on plants and their relationship with humans.
photo Małgorzata Kaznowska
Audio Stage 2020 - Korposzamanizm
The percussionist Sofia Borges chose a risky but stimulating path: to explore, to experiment, to enlarge the established languages (be it the improvised ones or the composed by herself, with graphic notations extending the conventional writing) and the results are showing us that the art of sounds is not dead yet; far from it. She does it in two ways. One is the solo format – adding objects, some of them of her own invention, music boxes and toys to the jazz drumkit and the orchestral percussion instruments, and also analogic and digital electronic devices enabling her to process, in real time, her acoustic constructions, including in the mix a good number of field recordings. Another is the association with some of the most remarkable spontaneous noisemakers of our time, like Craig Taborn, Mat Maneri, Axel Dörner, Robyn Schulkowsky, Ignaz Schick, Ryeko Okuda, Sanem Kalfa, Michael Thieke, Cansu Tanrikulu, Chris Pitsiokos e Nick Dunston, just to name a few, and integrating unavoidable bands such as SORBD and SLOTSCH. The Berlin-based, but Portuguese-born inventive sound creator has the stage as her natural environment, establishing music as another of the performative arts. In this context it’s with no wonder that we find Sofia Borges in dance and theatre projects, collaborating with Meg Stuart, Alexis Blake or the collective Sounding Situations. There’s no end in sight for the investigative approaches of her playing with time and space, and that’s the key secret for her growing notability in the international scene.
photo Sergei Gavrylov
curator Qba Janicki
parcitipates
Rafał Ryterski
Cosmodernism
Qba Janicki
project Sonokinetic Cosmodernism
Buy ticket13th December 2023 | 8:00 PM
Przestrzeń Muzyki Współczesnej Hashtag Lab ul. Barska 29.
Sonokinetic Cosmodernism
The main idea behind the Sonokinetic project is to use the movement of a sound source in space as a performance and compositional technique. This idea is achieved through the use of a multi-channel mobile sound system using any number of portable speakers, which by default are to be placed at the audience's disposal for changing their position in space during the performance. Distribution of the audio signal within this system is carried out using dedicated software for its operation, on which an improvised piece for amplified percussion and electronics is finally performed with the active participation of the audience. The combination of these elements allows the creation of a multi-layered, moving sonic sculpture, the final shape of which is a resultant of the sounds generated by the soloist, the transformations of these sounds applied by the programmer operating the sound system, and the audience's behaviour in relation to the performance instructions, which are presented to the audience/performers of the composition present in the hall. Sonokinetic is a project initiated in 2020 by Qba Janicki as part of an artistic scholarship from the City of Warsaw, to which he invited programmer and composer Rafał Ryterski. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Sonokinetic project never lived to see its premiere, so its presentation within the Warsaw Experiment Studio will take place for the first time. The main sound source presented on the Sonokinetic system will be percussion amplified by contact microphones, a sound board and a set of analogue electronic instruments.
For the needs of the Warsaw Experiment Studio, the Sonokinetic project has also been developed with a visual layer performed by Kamil Czapiga, who performs under the pseudonym Cosmodernism. This artist creates vivid visualizations using the microscope and other varieties of precision optics to amplify visually the physical and chemical reactions occurring when combining a wide range of dyes, liquids and objects. He describes his style as microchemical futurism, the effects of which are created by experimenting with the above-mentioned elements in the most primal way, i.e. by trial and error.
During the two-day meeting, the artists will combine all of the above-mentioned elements to create an advanced audiovisual organism, and will explain how their tools and techniques function.
Qba Janicki – born 6th February 1989 in Bydgoszcz, Poland. Growing out of the artistic society gathered around the famous club MÓZG. Over last 17 years he performed hundreds of concerts, during which he performed with such personalities as Jerzy Mazzoll, Sławek Janicki, Roscoe Mitchell, Tomasz Sroczyński, Toshinori Kondo, Peter Brotzmann, Mats Gustafson or Fred Frith. For over a decade a member of Wojtek Mazolewski Quintet. Currently working solo and in such formations as Malediwy with Marek Pospieszalski, T’ien Lai with Jakub Ziołek and Łukasz Jędrzejczak, Marek Pospieszalski Octet and Trio de Janeiro. Besides playing instruments, he also composes music for theater working with Krzysztof Garbaczewski, Maciej Podstawny, Paweł Łysak, Artur Pałyga and Grzegorz Jaremko. He also made his appearance on hiphop stage, producing an album HORE by a legendary raper VIENIO of one of the first polish hiphop groups MOLESTA. In addition, as vice president of MÓZG FOUNDATION and Grupa Sokołowska Association, he works on organizing cultural and social events in Bydgoszcz, Warsaw and Sokołowsko. Since the beginning of 2020 he is also running his own radio show “WARSTWY” for Radio Kapitał.
Rafał Ryterski
Composer, activist, multimedia artist (installations, audiovisual works). Born in 1992 in Gdynia, Poland. The synthesis of the various styles from which he draws is a hallmark of his work - this practise Ryterski describes as genrebending. His art concerns topics like identity, queer culture and exposing violence mechanisms. Ryterski’s music is very rich in references and non-music content, which makes it intercontextual and allows the composer to be much more literal about the topics that are interesting to him. Most of his pieces involve multimedia, software and sometimes physical electronic devices, which through sometimes extreme modification of input material, gives him an opportunity to explore new identities for acoustic instruments, musicians or even spaces. In 2021 he was nominated for a Paszport Polityki prize in the Classical Music category, for introducing the LGBTQ+ themes to polish contemporary music.
Cosmodernism is my personal intermedia art project that came to life in 2019 in Katowice, Poland. It incorporates both broadly defined abstract video art and photography, as well as original sound design and experimental and performative activities. The main idea of the project is to search for the personal abstract expression by exploring micro and macro observation in combination with specially composed soundscapes of my own production. As the building blocks of my films I often use various kinds of chemicals, dyes, objects, interesting reactions, both from the world of chemistry and physics.
For the creation and observation of my compositions, I use a microscope and other precision optics in combination with a camera, which I use to capture images in various kinds of original micro film sets, based on self-made mechanisms and lighting systems. I try to continuously search for methods of observation that are new to me and that will give me wider capabilities to enjoy and capture the world at the microscale and beyond.
Since I don't have any scientific background, my actions are based mainly on intuition, empirical experience and the trial-and-error method - which I see as an essential part of my project. Although many of the shots you see in my portfolio appear to be computer-generated, they were not created using CGI and digital techniques. These are all real objects in an unreal perspective. Science fiction but without the fiction.
Microchemical retrofuturism.
My name is Kamil Czapiga, I was born in 1991 in Katowice, Poland, where I still live and create. My creative adventure began in my adolescence, when my parents sent me to a local art school, even though I didn't think it was the best idea at that time. A few years later, already without much resistance, I continued my art education at the Academy of Fine Arts in my city, where I studied Graphic Design, and received my bachelor's degree from the illustration class in 2012. During my studies, I started my career as an illustrator and tattoo artist. For the next 11 years, I ran my private tattoo studio, where I performed my original designs for clients from both Poland and abroad. In April 2023, due to the unexpected acceleration of the development of my side microscope project, I made the decision to completely end my career in the tattoo industry and focus exclusively on the Cosmodernism project, which is currently my main work platform and creative direction.
Concert Zdzisław Piernik & Sławek Janicki
composition by Bogusław Schaeffer "PROJEKT"
During the December edition of the Warszaw Experiment Studio project, a special concert is planned, performed by tuba player Zdzisław Piernik and double bassist Sławek Janicki, who have been working together for over two decades. One of the works performed by this duo is a composition by Bogusław Schaeffer, titled "Project", which consists of a "tape" layer, recorded on March 7, 1976 at the Polish Radio Experimental Studio in Warsaw. The tape was recorded by Bohdan Mazurek.
Sławek Janicki - musician, filmmaker, creator of artistic activities, started his activity in the mid-1980s, being part of artistic movements active between Gdańsk and Bydgoszcz. He co-created the so-called Tass Scene, which was based in the legendary Mózg club in Bydgoszcz, founded in 1994, still run by Janicki.
For over 30 years he has been active (but not tense) on the international improvised music scene, giving concerts in Europe and Australia. As a musician, he remains completely committed to absolute improvisation as the purest form of music creation.
He has performed with an incalculable number of artists from the Polish and international scene of improvisation. He has made recordings realased on cd's and vinyls with the following musicians: R. Mitchell, P. Brotzmann, M. Feldman, S. Namtchylak, N. de Heney, J. Mazzoll, K. Uchihashi, N. Hein, S. Couvoisier, Q. Janicki, F. Frith, T. Kondo, T. Gwinciński, J. Buhl, K. Staszewski, J. Zdunek, M. Zieliński, Ł. Jędrzejczak, A. Maćkowiak, Z. Piernik.
Zdzisław Piernik performs on stages in such countries as: Germany, Austria, Belgium, the Netherlands, Great Britain, France, Portugal, Sweden, Japan, Mexico and the United States, where he is appreciated for his originality and power of expression. He has made many recordings as a soloist, with piano accompaniment, and with symphony orchestras for record labels such as Polskie Nagrania, Pro-Viva, and Sonoton. He has also made radio recordings in Germany, Belgium, France, Sweden, Great Britain and television recordings in Munich and London.
As a soloist, he took part in several hundred symphonic and chamber concerts. Its concert repertoire is very diverse, from its own transcriptions of works by old masters to the latest achievements of contemporary music. He was the first tuba player in Poland to introduce harmonics, glissandos, frullatos and multi-notes into his playing. He prepared his instrument by building trumpet, saxophone and trombone bells into the tube, using bassoon and saxophone mouthpieces and various types of mutes.
After a several-year break from performing contemporary music, he returned to the stage, also collaborating with the younger generation of improvising musicians, including Sławek Janicki (double bass), Michał Górczyński (clarinet) and Andrzej Izdebski (guitar).
About
The Warsaw Experimental Studio project is based around creating and carrying out a series regular events in the city, the main purpose of which is to build a platform for innovative and uncompromising creative activities, independent of financial and cyclical conditions.
Part of the project will be sound/musical activities with no restrictions, alongside interdisciplinary activities in which sound plays a key role. This year's first Warsaw Experimental Studio (WSE) will be held in the recently established Hashtag Lab on Barska Street 29.
The WSE program has been created created as follows: The author of the project, Sławek Janicki invited four curators: Anna Jędrzejewska, Marek Chołoniewski, Adam Radź, Qba Janicki.
The curators are building four two-day events to which they invite both local and international artists. Artists, under the supervision of a curator, create a new, interdisciplinary work. The artists' work is documented audiovisually, assembled into a movie, which is made after each meeting presenting the characters of the artists and showing the process of creating their piece. On the second day, each part of the project is followed by a public presentation of the created work.
The four parts of this year's project are scheduled for: September 25, 26, October 10, 11, 7, 8 November, December 12, 13. During the December edition of the project, a special concert will performed by a tuba player, Zdzisław Piernik and a double bassist, Sławek Janicki, who have been working together for over two decades. One of the works performed by this duo is a composition by Bogusław Schaeffer, titled "Projekt", which includes a "tape" layer, recorded in 1970 in the Polish Radio Experimental Studio.
During the events in the Hashtag Lab concert hall, access for people with special needs will be provided - a ramp for people in wheelchairs. The applicant also offers alternative means of access for people with special needs, including seniors or pregnant women, to enable them to reach the event site safely. The support of another person - a volunteer or an employee of the institution - is also offered during the event.
Within the building, there is a layout of the rooms, furthermore, we also plan to provide this information in a vocal manner through the staff of the concert hall. All rooms are accessible to people with physical disabilities. We foresee the possibility of entering the concert hall with assistance dogs. For people with special needs, including those with mobility, sight and hearing disabilities, the evacuation procedures take into account such participants through the assistance of a person designated to assist in such circumstances.
Contact
main curatorSławek Janicki
fundacja@mozg.art.pl | 661574508
CoordinatorQba Janicki
Joanna Bagnucka - design