AUDIOVISUAL PROJECT OF POLISH ARTISTS – AT KCCC EXHIBITION HALL

Participants of KCCC International Art Residency, Jacek and Ewa Doroszenko, will present their audiovisual project “Natural Potential” as the part of “Museum Night” program at the KCCC Exhibition Hall (Didžioji Vandens str. 2, Klaipėda) on the 20^th of May, at 8 PM.

Artist Duo residing in Klaipėda since the end of April, who uses interdisciplinary techniques in the works, is mainly interested in the nature of art media and modern approach towards the surroundings and nature. They chose the analysis of aural and visual environment of landscape, recording and transferring of the collected data into the digital cultural space for their studies.

The project “Natural Potential” is continuous; the artists started it in 2014 at the art residency in Barcelona (Spain). Since then, they have been visiting a different European country each year: alongside the aforementioned Spain, the project has been continued in Norway, Greece, and Austria. When asked why they chose Klaipėda for their further studies, the residents laughed: “We have visited almost the whole Europe and realised that we still haven’t visited our closest neighbours. Therefore, we decided to check out what is happening in Lithuania.”

Jacek and Ewa Doroszenko are looking for aurally interesting places for the strategy of research of landscape sounds, and then they record audible background as well as images. Even though the specialty of both artists is painting, according to the Duo, Jacek feels more related to music while Ewa rather represents the visual arts; therefore, they perfectly complement each other. According to the artists, the sound studies are really convenient for the residency, since it is easy to take sound recording equipment and cameras for recording the material of research with you on the road.

The artists were more focused on urban sounds at previous residencies; however, when they came to Klaipėda and ferried to Smiltynė, they found natural environment and this changed the course of their research: “Here in Klaipėda we carry out studies based more on the sound texture and structure of nature – of the sea and forest. We mostly studied urban sounds until now, but here in Smiltynė, on the edge of the city, in natural surroundings, we long to break away from the city. There are lots of forests in here and natural environment in general, and even in the city you tend to use a lot of natural materials. This is becoming increasingly scarce in the world; for example, this has already become a problem inPoland, since there is a great deal of synthetic and artificial materials in cities. We really like your attitude towards nature and ecology” – the artists revealed their first impressions from the residency in Klaipėda.

The most important goal of the research of the art residents is sound. Using certain programs all accumulated audio material is being stratified, arranged, and musical compositions are being created out of it. They can be found not only on the artists’ website, they have also released a CD of their records, and the artists are going to present the audiovisual composition which they created during their residency in Klaipėda at the KCCC Exhibition Hall at “Museum Night” event.

“I make some kind of selection of all the sound records made in different places in Europe – I interconnect them, stratify them and arrange in a way that they would create like an impression of transposition or reincarnation; for example, I play the sounds recorded in one place and then the other; the sounds of different places are mixed and changing positions. We aim at imitating the sounds of the landscape, at playing the sounds which are recorded at the moment alongside what has been collected from the other territories. This idea was born after the residency in Greece where there was an ongoing noise for 24 hours a day, and we decided that we could transfer the sounds from one territory to another. Therefore, now we are looking for aurally interesting places in Klaipėda and seek to make a selection of these sounds in a musical composition” – Jacek Doroszenko was telling about his studies.

When asked what form the project visualisation manifests itself and how it is connected with the sound, Ewa said: “The most important goal of our research is sound. In order to reveal the way we see and feel, let’s say, the sea or any other landscape, we take pictures of it. However, our project is based on the fact that we do not present the recorded image directly but we synthesise it, recreate it in a digital cultural language, which is really dear to us. We are the generation of computers and internet and therefore we want to talk about nature and natural environment in digital language.” “We think that there are too many images; we are being attacked by visual pollution on all sides. Thus, we would like to have less of these images at the front of our project” – Jacek revealed his unique approach towards the surroundings. “We see a great number of tourists wherever we go and they are constantly taking pictures instead of simply enjoying the scenery. We want to listen to the sounds and illustrate them, supplement them with the landscape, presented in a more subtle, graphic form and video records” – Ewa summarised.

About authors

Ewa Doroszenko (b. 1983) has graduated from Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń, Poland, and acquired a degree of Doctor of Fine Arts; she is a laureate of several scholarships of art residencies: of Austria in 2016, of Greece in 2015, of Norway in 2015, of Spain in 2014 and of Italy in 2006. Her projects have been presented in the international art festivals in Athens (Greece), São Paulo (Brazil), Wrocław, Gdańsk (Poland), Vancouver (Canada), and Tübingen (Germany). The works of the artist have been exhibited in the Kasia Michalski Gallery in Warsaw, in Toruń Contemporary Art Centre (Poland), in FAIT Gallery in Brno (Czech  Republic) and etc. She lives and works in Warsaw. More information on the artist is available at: www.ewa-doroszenko.com.

Jacek Doroszenko (b. 1979) has graduated from Krakow’s Academy of Fine Arts. He participated in the international art residency programmes in Austria, Greece, Norway, Spain, and Italy. The artist has presented his works in the galleries and contemporary art centres of Madrid (Spain), Naples (Italy), Toruń, Krakow, Gdańsk, Warsaw (Poland), Athens (Greece), São Paulo (Brazil), Vancouver (Canada), Berlin (Germany), Brno (Czech Republic) and etc. He lives and works in Warsaw. More information on the artist and his works is available at: www.doroszenko.com.

The presentation (the entrance is free) of the audiovisual project “Natural Potential” of Jacek and Ewa Doroszenko Poland) at the KCCC Exhibition Hall (Didžioji Vandens str. 2, Klaipėda) on Saturday, the 20^th of May, at 8 PM.