Music as the beginning and the end of my researches

During my childhood, I have always thought that once I grew up I would be a musician, but unfortunately (or luckily) life had a completely different path for me—I graduated from the Faculty of Architecture and I received my PhD from the Arts Academy (University of Zagreb). When I was accepted as a doctoral candidate at the Academy of Fine Arts, I thought “it is not music, but at least it is an academy,” and my proposed simultaneous research of the composer Alexander Scriabin and painter Alexej Jawlensky showed that interdisciplinary I wished to return to my first passion: music. My mentor, Prof. Igor Rončević, Fellow of the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts, told me that my research should be linked to the contemporary context as well, or otherwise I would not step into unexplored space nor create a new tread in the world knowledge. Thanks to that instruction, I introduced one more artist into my research, but not a productive artist like Scriabin and Jawlensky, but a reproductive one—the world-renowned pianist Ivo Pogorelich. I assumed that his art would help me transfer my research into contemporary highly reproductive era.

It is not necessary to point out that my proposal at the Academy of Fine Arts was considered “a little weird,” but I explained that the visual-art section of my research was applicable to all branches of art in general, thus also to Pogorelich’s pianism, which suited my thesis precisely because his interpretations are unusually rich in musical tone colours. Finally, my artwork (which was an inevitable final part of my research and a prerequisite for receiving a PhD from the Arts Academy) was allowed to have a foothold in anything, thus it was not unusual that my multidisciplinary virtual light installation was indeed a synthesis of all researched artists, as many as five selected branches of art (music, painting, literature, architecture and dance), theory and philosophy of art, which all I successfully linked to science as well.

I have always loved playing the piano, so it was a special experience to promote my first book at the Zagreb Academy of Music

Chromatic fantasies in the new building of the Zagreb Academy of Music

In the period from 2012 to 2014, I have already published my researches at a higher literary level in the award-winning journal for literature, culture and science Riječi (Words). But at one point I realized that I needed to unite my texts, because despite being readable independently, there was an unbroken connection between them, leading the reader to the conclusion of the whole research. As I was taught the writing style by Mr. Andrija Tunjić, the Editor of the journal Riječi and Croatian renowned theater critic at Vijenac (also the author of a series of books), I asked him kindly to be the Editor of my first book.

In my book I finally managed to achieve a satisfactory literary expression by my own criteria, adding some new insights and connections between various branches of art and previously unrelated art works and their authors. The main theme were chromatic fantasies of Scriabin, Jawlensky and Pogorelich, and the researched three artists helped me to show that the reproductive artist just like the productive one is capable of achieving abstract expression. Following this idea, it was wonderful to organize the book promotion in the new building of the Zagreb Academy of Music, which has a rainbow-coloured installation on its roof—it is the same colour spectrum I used to “overpaint” the black and white piano keys on the cover of my book. This design showed that Scriabin’s light organ was the leitmotif of all of my researches, while the silhouette of the piano provided a refuge for the very long subtitle of my book.

speakers provided original interpretations of the same work

My book is entitled Abstract Reproductive as Productive Art: Chromatic Fantasies of the Composer Alexander Scriabin, Painter Alexej Jawlensky and Pianist Ivo Pogorelich, and with it I wanted to show that reproductive artists, just like productive artists, can render the original work unrecognizable, despite being obliged to respect the written work in its entirety. Once artists begin to dissolve the original work, they have endless shades of musical tones at their disposal, and precisely this aspect was followed by Prof. Ljubomir Gašparović while playing Scriabin’s composition Feuillet d’Album, Op. 58, at the beginning and the end of the promotion. He managed to show that the same composition could be played to such an extent differently that the listener would almost not be able to recognize that the same piece was performed.

In addition to Scriabin’s music, Robert Selimović composed electronic music for this occasion, and we listened to it while entering the hall and as an accompaniment to my video-work entitled Music Iconostasis of the Painter Alexej Jawlensky. The audience was greeted by the publisher representative Mrs. Đurđica Vuković, and the Editor Andrija Tunjić was the first to speak about my book, while remembering my beginnings. Prof. Zlatko Kauzlarić Atač was the book reviewer and he followed (he was also the current Director of the Postgraduate Studies at the Zagreb Academy of Fine Arts and the President of my Doctoral Dissertation Evaluation and Defense Committee) and Prof. Gašparović was the last to present my book—it is worth mentioning that his speech was as interesting as his playing the piano. After all presenters, I could hardly wait for a moment to say something as well, because I finally found myself in the favorite situation when like reproductive artist I could interpret my own work. Prof. Atač’s speech was later published in the journal Riječi, while the news of the promotion was conveyed by the magazine Vijenac.

In the audience family, colleagues, friends and art lovers

It amazed me how many people came to the promotion because I was aware that this was my first book, hoping that the hall would be at least comfortably filled. So I could not believe it when I saw that there were not enough chairs and that a part of the audience would be standing! I had a wonderful time with my family and friends, but also my professors and colleagues; even one Fellow of the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts expressed interest in my book by joining us. I thank everyone for coming, I have never felt so much good energy in my entire professional life!

In the audience family, colleagues, friends and art lovers

It amazed me how many people came to the promotion because I was aware that this was my first book, hoping that the hall would be at least comfortably filled. So I could not believe it when I saw that there were not enough chairs and that a part of the audience would be standing! I had a wonderful time with my family and friends, but also my professors and colleagues; even one Fellow of the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts expressed interest in my book by joining us. I thank everyone for coming, I have never felt so much good energy in my entire professional life!