Judit Emese Konopas was selected as an 2018 resident for KRA, Kravin Rural Arts with the support of the IVF. She arrived while we were setting up the annual festival in May, part of our ambitious Fanfara Hranice project. This dealt specifically with concepts of movement and music, and how elements of older rural cultural history, the marching band culture, can mean something today as a participatory impetus in small communities, where ever they are. Judit could fit in nicely and it as perhaps a good chosen moment to get to know young cultural workers and artists from the area, and see how they work.
Afterwards she immediately made a selection of works from our large library, esp. books about research on mind, body and sound, and interaction. As a result of this her original ideas were quickly changing, and more focused on the development of something new, rather than continuing with what she was anticipating for. Kra does not want to go immediately into production with residents but rather wants to encourage them to deepen out the development phase in a serious way, but defining practical goals for learning, implementing, experimenting and testing out. There are always some visitors and other residents around, so it is interesting to connect in the first place to them for small collaborations and setting up showcases, which Judit did in the end.
We were certainly happy to have Judit as a summer resident at KRA, and hope to see her again as a visitor, setting up works for the environment, and in larger projects.
G.
JUDIT EMESE KONOPÁS //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// KRA // HRANICE // 05-07.2018. //
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// PHENOMENOLOGICAL LISTENING // MEDITATION // NATURE
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ABSTRACT //
„Engaging in the present and let things flow.
Hearing back your own voice / self.
Juxtaposing our sounds with nature.
How would we sound when there are no barriers and when we can easily express ourselves in nature?
Finding our true self in nature.
Getting back to the base, to the foundation. From what we can easily be disconnected if we don’t watch for a change in ourselves.
We should be careful about it.”
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REPORT //
I had an interesting research experience in KRA, Hranice during my residency that took place between May and July in 2018.
As I previously wrote in my proposal, I was aiming to connect nature to ourselves – mainly the result of urban culture – to see how these relate to each other and influence vica versa.
First of all, with the attention of relations I was able to go deeply concentrating rather on the natural side of the Czech country. Afterwards my research drew the attention towards the connnection of urban living and the influences it may have in nature.
The forest enfolds people in intimacy. It still has the energy to let us be present with it. Also, with the stance towards, we could easily come to the conclusion of the similiarities of the two kinds.
The realization of the project was mainly about how nature and the disturbance of it could create a pair influencing each other in various ways and layers. If the environment changes, the nature will follow after a while with either same changes occuring in the natural habitat and either in the behaviour of animals. Additionally, the impact of their changing attitude, voice and how it affects urban living back and forth could easily be depicted as well.
Hearing and looking at these effects, we shall have the feeling of interrelation, as we are all dependent on each other irrespectively of the ways of our attraction towards each other. Either the balance goes to the positive and in some cases rather to the negative side.
Following the above listed path practically, I created a performance as a documentation of my research next to the residency place, KRA where the relations of the nature and the built environment could easily be used for this purpose. The location not only allowed to either be the base, but the background for the performance also. The scenario of the piece was influenced by the scene of architecture and its impact on nature. With the help of some participants we created an event where we could either experiment and play with the acoustics of the environment.
From the materials recorded during my residency stay, I compose a piece that would allow the listener to travel back in time and to connect with the listed feelings and experience. It may help us to better understand and to relate to our nature and environment as well creating a better atmosphere for all attendance.
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