Synthesis of Scriabin, Jawlensky and Pogorelich in a virtual installation

In my doctoral research, which I conducted at the Zagreb Arts Academy from October 2010 to June 2013, the analysis of artistic achievements of the composer Alexander Scriabin, painter Alexej Jawlensky and pianist Ivo Pogorelich was an introduction to my practical work. I was aiming to synthesize knowledge gained from five branches of art (painting , music, literature, architecture and dance), but also from art theory and philosophy, as well as from science. The transfer of knowledge led me to a better understanding of art and numerous artistic practices and helped me build the concept of my own artwork as the final dialectical synthesis and the completion of my research. Thus, in the abstract virtual space a multidisciplinary light installation was created—it was designed for Pogorelich’s performance of Scriabin’s piano pieces, with a simultaneous projection of Jawlensky’s painting series entitled Abstract Heads.

Multidisciplinary virtual light installation designed during my doctoral studies at the Zagreb Arts Academy

Meeting of painting and music at THE common platform

I studied these previously unrelated artists (Scriabin, Jawlensky and Pogorelich) and their work together hoping to arrive at the common platform where I think painting and music meet. Thus my installation purports to show the productive aspects in reproductive art and is built as a counterpoint of independent ideas interacting in a common thought structure. It is set up on Lake Lugano, which is not a mere coincidence when we know that all three artists began showing a growing interest in abstraction in Switzerland. Furthermore, my 3D multimedia projection sets up Scriabin’s serialism in music in space, and the pictorial serialism of Jawlensky is presented so as to show how it occupies time. Simultaneously, I achieve a sense of simulated motion through a system of lasers responding to Pogorelich’s changing body gravity. The lasers are my interpretation of Scriabin’s colour system, taking as base the quint circle and Isaac Newton’s optics. As this project will not in actuality be played out so that real people could in reality assume their assigned roles, as a multidisciplinary author I am responsible for the entire creative input. The visual content and computer projection are accompanied by my own performance of Scriabin’s composition for the piano Feuillet d’album, Op. 58. Originally, however, the installation was designed for Pogorelich’s performance of Scriabin’s piano pieces.

Screening at the International Experimental Video-Art Festival

After the screening at the Zagreb Arts Academy, I did not want my video-work to end up in an archive room, so I was thrilled when International ArtExpo in collaboration with MECA (Mediterráneo Centro Artístico) selected my installation to be presented during the International Experimental Video-Art Festival Pixels of Identities, which was to be held in October 2014 in the Museum of the City of Almeria in Spain. The Museum won two awards in 2004 (PAD and ARCO), and in 2005 the museum building was a finalist in the Fostering Arts and Design (FAD) Awards. Also, in 2008 it won an honorary prize in the European Museum of the Year competition (organized by the European Museum Forum), and as a public institution founded in 1934, it celebrated its 80th birthday in 2014. During the anniversary celebration my light installation was projected.

ITSLIQUID interviewed two authors

When I thought there was nothing more to be done to make the story of my light installation the one with a beautiful ending, shortly before the closure of the festival I was approached by the festival partner ITSLIQUID (International Platform for Contemporary Art, Architecture and Design). I was asked for an interview so that wider audience would be informed of my recent work, which their expert team rated as highly interesting.

ITSLIQUID interviewed two artists

When I thought there was nothing more to be done to make the story of my light installation the one with a beautiful ending, shortly before the closure of the festival I was approached by the festival partner ITSLIQUID (International Platform for Contemporary Art, Architecture and Design). I was asked for an interview so that wider audience would be informed of my recent work, which their expert team rated as highly interesting.

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