TESTING GROUND: Reparative Practices for a New Cultural Ecosystem

A reparative retreat / non-event
22 ﹣27 May, Molat Island
Kurziv, Maska and Krytyka Polityczna, with the University of Zadar

Collaborators and representatives of the partner organisations (Kurziv, Maska and Krytyka Polityczna) of the project Testing Ground: reparative practices for a new cultural ecosystem, will, together with Cona head to a less touristed Adriatic Island, untethered from the fast pace of work, where they will explore the restorative and healing potentials that the communal retreat possibly has on our precarious bodies. What do we call work and is it even possible not to work? Is non work something we should strive for? The open structure of living on an island unsaturated with impulses and relatively ecologically intact will allow them to discover answers and share experiences in confronting these and other questions that are relevant for exploring strategies that can have a reparative impact on their work and life.

On the island of Molat, in cooperation with the University of Zadar, we will organize an eco-tour for participants and students that will get us situated on the island and discuss sustainable tourism as an alternative to a consumeristic vacation model. We will watch the short film Colony Molat (Cona and Maska, 2023) and conduct a deep listening exercise with the guidance from Cona institute. Upon our return to the mainland, we will have the opportunity to listen to a discussion on the potential of transdisciplinarity at the University of Zadar by Željka Tonković, PhD, Assistant Professor, Taida Garibović, MSc., and students from Zadar, where representatives of the Zakole group from Poland (Krytyka Polityczna) and Brane Zorman from the Cona Institute will share their experience.

Read more on maska.si.

AUTHORS

Brane Zorman is an intermedia artist, composer, sound manipulator, producer and curator. He composes sound works for theater, intermedia and dance performances. His electroacoustic solo compositions and improvisations with Slovenian and international artists are performed in surround sound. In relation to sound and space, he develops various strategies, techniques, dynamic and interactive modules, records and reinterprets soundscapes and creates electronic and acoustic sound sculptures using sophisticated tools.

Irena Pivka, artist and producer, works in a wide field of artistic creation within the Cona institute and runs Steklenik, a gallery for sound, bioacoustics and art. As an author, she deals primarily with projects that shed light on the site-sound-map-digital tools relations. In the focus of her ongoing artistic processes are sound-walk performances developed in collaboration with Brane Zorman, in which, through walking and listening to ‘different’ soundscapes, the space becomes tuned to social reality.

Taida Garibović is an enthusiastic ecologist with 15 years of experience working with NGOs and institutions on projects in nature conservation, sustainable development, and capacity building in Zadar County, Croatia. Her expertise includes the preparation and implementation of funded projects, as well as leading a project team. Her approach to nature conservation is holistic, bringing all stakeholders together to work on joint solutions respecting natural processes. She is constantly finding new ways to enhance her knowledge and skills, with the latest, becoming an alumna of the Klaus Toepfer Fellowship Programme, which promotes emerging nature conservation leaders. Today, she runs a nature conservation, environment protection, and sustainable development consultancy called GAIA (Mother Earth) in Zadar, Croatia. Her original vocation is marine biology and ecology and she also holds an MSc in landscape ecology and nature conservation.

Željka Tonković is Associate Professor at the University of Zadar’s Department of Sociology. She received her PhD in Sociology in 2012 at the University of Zagreb. Her research interests include sociology of culture and urban sociology, with particular reference to cultural participation and consumption, social inequalities, and the role of culture in urban development. Her research is also focused on network theory and analysis and its application in the study of culture. So far she has published three books and more than twenty papers in Croatian and international journals, (e.g. Poetics, Social Networks, Cultural Sociology, Cultural Trends). Through active participation in scientific and professional projects and networks, her engagement also includes the application of research results in the development of public policies.

Testing Ground: Reparative Practices for New Cultural Ecosystem, supported by European Union, is a project developed and conducted by Kurziv – Platform for Matters of Culture, Media and Society, Stowarzyszenie Im. Stanislawa Brzozowskiego / Krytyka Polityczna and Maska Ljubljana.