Book entitled “Abstract Reproductive as Productive Art”

Book ”Abstract reproductive as productive art”

Photo from the book promotion at the Zagreb Academy of Music

Mirna Rudan Lisak author

By Mirna Rudan Lisak, PhD

The first original book on Scriabin in Croatia

The book of essays entitled Abstract Reproductive as Productive Art: Chromatic Fantasies of the Composer Alexander Scriabin, Painter Alexej Jawlensky and Pianist Ivo Pogorelich is the result of interdisciplinary research of previously unrelated artists in order to create a dialogue between two branches of art—painting and music, but also productive and reproductive artistic practice. Abstract reproductive art is a novelty in artistic terminology: it is an artistic reproduction that renders the original work completely unrecognizable, despite keeping it completely unchanged. The term arose from the search for an answer to the question of whether and when reproductive art can be considered as productive art, about which I wrote in the introduction: “Two modern productive artists and a contemporary reproductive one—at first glance there do not seem to be any common characteristics in the work of the composer Alexander Scriabin, painter Alexej Jawlensky and pianist Ivo Pogorelich. However, when the chosen subject matter is approached in a multidisciplinary fashion, perception is no longer conditioned by a single absolute focus and all perspectives suddenly open up, offering many possibilities where new relations and connections are not only the result of observation but of imagination as well. That is the moment when the past, the present and the future intermingle and no obstacles stand in the way of synthesizing diverse epochs and branches of art undertaken to establish an analytical counterpoint among the three seemingly independent but nevertheless deeply connected essays, aiming to identify contemporary tendencies in art in order to find the answer to the question as to whether and when the reproductive art may be regarded as productive art.

PROF. LJUBOMIR GAŠPAROVIĆ, PIANIST: “I read Mirna Rudan Lisak's book with great interest. Today, there are very few people who have an original idea, and although doctors of science or art should have original ideas for their theses, they are mostly taken from others, and then refined with new researches. The idea of Dr. Rudan Lisak is completely original and very interesting.”

Promotion at the Music Academy of the University of Zagreb

The book was presented at the Zagreb Academy of Music by editor Andrija Tunjić, Prof. Zlatko Kauzlarić Atač (painter) and Prof. Ljubomir Gašparović (musician), while Mrs. Đurđica Vuković, president of Matica hrvatska Sisak, greeted the audience. The speech of Prof. Atač was published in the magazine Riječi (Words), and as I wanted to prove that reproductive artists, like productive artists, can achieve the unrecognizability of the original, Prof. Gašparović played Scriabin’s composition Feuillet d’album Op 58 twice—at the beginning and at the end of the promotion—to show that the same composition can be played so originally that the impression of completely different works were played would be created. Along with Scriabin’s music, electronic music was composed for the promotion by Robert Selimović, and we listened to it upon entering the hall and as an accompaniment to my video-work Music iconostasis of the painter Alexej Jawlensky.

Years of work and effort led to the publication of the book

Prof. Gašparović plays Scriabin’s composition Feuillet d’album Op. 58

Editor Andrija Tunjić presents my work

Prof. Zlatko Kauzlarić Atač was the reviewer of the art section, while the reviewer of the music section was prof. Bogdan Gagić

I compare Pogorelich’s music interpretations with Picasso’s painting

Prof. Gašparović played and spoke equally interestingly

I present my work

Prof. Gašparović plays the same Scriabin’s composition in a completely different manner

Thank you all for coming!

Dedication to friends and business associates

Acknowledgments to the people and institutions that supported me, and I dedicated the book to my mother, Tatjana Valić Rudan, who was a concert pianist

There is no real joy without family and friends—my book in the hand of Robert Selimović, author of the premiered electronic music

Blog-Promocija-plakat

From the book to the founding of the Scriabin Society

Our famous pianist, Ivo Pogorelić was the first to buy the book, and it is featured on the official website of Alexej von Jawlensky Archiv S.A. from Locarno (Switzerland). It is kept in the Zagreb Libraries, the Library of the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts, Alexej von Jawlensky-Archive S.A. in Locarno (Switzerland), Memorial Museum of A. N. Scriabin in Moscow (Russia), Museum Wiesbaden (Germany) and Norton Simon Museum in Pasadena (USA). After the book was noticed by Alexander Serafimovich Scriabin, a descendant of the famous composer’s family, I responded to the invitation of the Memorial Museum of A. N. Scriabin and presented my work in Moscow in 2018, as part of the commemoration of the 100th anniversary of the Museum’s foundation. Then my essay on the mystic chord was translated and published in Russian, and the networking of professionals from the two countries led to the foundation of the Croatian Society Alexander Scriabin.

The famous Croatian pianist Ivo Pogorelich was the first to buy the book

Blog-Promocija-plakat

The famous Croatian pianist Ivo Pogorelich was the first to buy the book

From the book to the founding of the Scriabin Society

Our famous pianist, Ivo Pogorelić was the first to buy the book, and it is featured on the official website of Alexej von Jawlensky Archiv S.A. from Locarno (Switzerland). It is kept in the Zagreb Libraries, the Library of the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts, Alexej von Jawlensky-Archive S.A. in Locarno (Switzerland), Memorial Museum of A. N. Scriabin in Moscow (Russia), Museum Wiesbaden (Germany) and Norton Simon Museum in Pasadena (USA). After the book was noticed by Alexander Serafimovich Scriabin, a descendant of the famous composer’s family, I responded to the invitation of the Memorial Museum of A. N. Scriabin and presented my work in Moscow in 2018, as part of the commemoration of the 100th anniversary of the Museum’s foundation. Then my essay on the mystic chord was translated and published in Russian, and the networking of professionals from the two countries led to the foundation of the Croatian Society Alexander Scriabin.

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Multidisciplinary Virtual Installation

MULTIDISCIPLINARY VIRTUAL INSTALLATION

Mirna kvadrat

By Mirna Rudan Lisak, PhD

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 of reproductive art and is built as a counterpoint to 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 their basis 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.

“After the screening at the Zagreb Arts Academy, I did not want my video-work to end up in an archive room.”

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. This is why I was thrilled when International ArtExpo, in collaboration with MECA (Mediterráneo Centro Artístico), selected my installation for the presentation during the International Experimental Video-Art Festival Pixels of Identities. In October 2014, it was held 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 which was founded in 1934, in 2014 it celebrated its 80th anniversary. During the celebration, my light installation was projected.

Award-winning Museo de Almería (Spain)

Fascinating architectural design of the museum interior

An oval-like construction of the installation whose sections synthesize dialectical ellipticity and perfect circle

From the basic idea I build my conceptual project

Discarding excess parts creates the basic form of the installation

Transparent construction of the light installation

Installation floating on the Lake Lugano

 Installation under the influence of light effects

I bring the schematic representation of the pianist into the installation’s centre of gravity—after adding music my video is finished

Blog Pixels morphing apstraktnih glava

Interview for ITSLIQUID

Just when I thought that this virtual journey had the best possible ending, shortly before the closure of the festival, the organizer’s partner, ITSLIQUID (International Platform for Contemporary Art, Architecture and Design), approached me and asked for an interview, so that the public would be permanently introduced to my work.

“In my installation, Abstract Heads blend into one another to show that serial painting takes on a temporal dimension in addition to the spatial one, despite Vassily Kandinsky’s claim that painting, unlike music, is not provided with this possibility.”

Blog Pixels morphing apstraktnih glava

“In my installation, Abstract Heads blend into one another to show that serial painting takes on a temporal dimension in addition to the spatial one, despite Vassily Kandinsky’s claim that painting, unlike music, is not provided with this possibility.”

Interview for ITSLIQUID

Just when I thought that this virtual journey had the best possible ending, shortly before the closure of the festival, the organizer’s partner, ITSLIQUID (International Platform for Contemporary Art, Architecture and Design), approached me and asked for an interview, so that the public would be permanently introduced to my work.

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