Cona events source

This is a curatorial performance, i.e. a presentation in which I do not read a paper, but perform ideas by playing sounds and reciting poetry, reading texts and proposing text-scores, while moving and standing still. Using this format I aim to rethink the notion of “no signal“ – not as noise or a loss of connection – but as an opportunity to hear silence and the silenced, and thus as an opportunity to start hearing things. “No signal“ appears valueless in relation to communication. It is the fuzzy sound of a bad connection, which imparts nothing, and carries no worth. It implies a lack and describes the undesirable that needs to be cleaned up and erased in order to create a clear meaning and sense. The expectation is that we overcome this lack in order to organise sound into something we can make (visual) sense of.

However, what if we focus on the lack of connection and the fuzzy sound rather than the signal? What if we abandon the differentiation? – I will query the “no signal“ as that which opens an alternative audition. To get to a prior meaning, before signification. A preliminary sense that lies beyond legibility and enables a different response.

The bioacoustic sound sculpture Inaudible – Audible, among the Bats reveals an almost inaudible world of frequency ranges emitted by bats that are usually inaccessible to humans. The project is positioned between sound ecology and bioacoustic music, as it processes the sounds of the night environment and bats from the ultrasonic spectrum and transposes them into the human audible range.

The composition consists of audible night sounds, joined by transposed bat voices and other nocturnal sound sources. The final sound space consists of an inner – castle, distant forest and central space, represented by the external platform surrounding the castle. The composition includes electroacoustic processing of the sound material and is played as a spatial, 3D or 360-degree sound projection.

The soundwalk Odjek strela is an artistic research that uses guided listening to open questions of memory, archiving and silence within the urban space. The listening session stems from years of researching the relationship between documentation and forgetting. The walk is based on the layering of sound materials – archival recordings, text fragments, field recordings and contemporary sound interventions – that are intertwined with sounds taken from the immediate surroundings. This establishes a tension between the mediated and the directly experienced, the written and the elusive. The central motif of the soundwalk is the echo of a gunshot – a sound that returns, moves away and comes closer, as a point of orientation and as a disturbance. It refers to the former symbol of the pink gun on the facade of the former Rog factory and opens questions linked to the history of the space: from industrial production to autonomous practices, erasure and transformation. What happens to the story when the gun is not fired? The author treats the lack of the gunshot as silence – an active and meaningful absence. The soundscape shifts between the echoes of live radio transmissions emitted from the roof of the former factory building and low-frequency pulses in its basement, which act almost physically, like a subterranean recording. The path leads through the urban space as through an invisible archive, in which layered histories and repressed memories are revealed. Speculative questions are raised: what would the trees remember if they were still standing, and what traces do the new trees extract from the soil? The conclusion at the former Rog factory, at the monument to the erased, establishes a temporary, invisible monument – a space of reflection on what remains unspoken but persistently present.

REPAST is a shared lunch for artists and visitors to the TO)pot festival. It is conceived as a space for gathering, taking a break, and informally engaging with the ideas and themes explored through the work of Cona and the TO)pot festival.

The BAZA space welcomes visitors with a soundscape featuring compositions from the Cona archive, alongside a selection of books, specialist publications, and booklets from the archive of Cona’s projects.

This guided soundwalk leads us from the Monument to Ivan Hribar, across the Triple Bridge, past Prešeren’s statue, along the Hribar Embankment, streets, buildings, networks – concrete spaces that were in a way gifted to us by Ivan Hribar’s vision and which open our minds to reflections, meetings and events in his life. Vinko Möderndorfer draws on professional and literary texts through which he depicts the irresistible ethical stance, wealth of spirit and vision of a thinker, mayor, politician, a sensitive supporter of art and culture, a man who helped reshape the post-earthquake Ljubljana and for whom politics meant the honour of “being able to selflessly serve people“.

The soundwalk recreates a walk through his silences, which are full of reminiscences and reflections from his life, silences that allow us to explore our own reflections and question our period and values. Ivan Hribar’s final walk in 1941, silent within the sonority of the city, but a clear “yes“ to his personal values and his rebellion against foreign occupation and unprincipledness, is in reality not the final walk, as we only have to open our senses to hear and feel the “light breeze“ of his spirit.

Voice shapes unique compositions with the complex musical instrument of our bodies every day. A unique composition that follows the individual’s paths is created through the multi-layered structure of predominantly improvised responses to the numerous stimuli to which we are exposed daily and situationally.

The voice, even when not expressed, resides in the inner silence of an individual, thus forming a living entity in which continuous communication between multiple sub-personalities takes place. Only through a conscious decision does it become audible, flexibly transitioning between different roles: communication, warning, messaging, expression of power, creation, social networking, calming or a therapeutic tool.

The GLASnaPOT soundwalk takes us gradually from the loud city streets to inner landscapes – on a journey during which we get to know the musical instrument that we inhabit, inviting us to curiously explore all its hidden corners.

Voice shapes unique compositions with the complex musical instrument of our bodies every day. A unique composition that follows the individual’s paths is created through the multi-layered structure of predominantly improvised responses to the numerous stimuli to which we are exposed daily and situationally.

The voice, even when not expressed, resides in the inner silence of an individual, thus forming a living entity in which continuous communication between multiple sub-personalities takes place. Only through a conscious decision does it become audible, flexibly transitioning between different roles: communication, warning, messaging, expression of power, creation, social networking, calming or a therapeutic tool.

The GLASnaPOT soundwalk takes us gradually from the loud city streets to inner landscapes – on a journey during which we get to know the musical instrument that we inhabit, inviting us to curiously explore all its hidden corners.

Tu, čisto blizu is an invitation for participants to transform from passive walkers into active co-creators of the urban landscape, leaving behind a more visible imprint, a more visible trace.

On the level of both the individual and the group, the walk explores how we inhabit and move through the city, and what defines the nature of our encounters and interactions. It foregrounds the bodily dimension of experiencing the city and asks how the body might be placed within the predictable dynamics of urban life in a different way. It highlights the power of the moment when individuals step out of individualistic, fleeting observation of their surroundings and become aware of, give meaning to, and perhaps even alter their automated urban routes.

Through different situations and stops in the city, Tu, čisto blizu invites participants to walk through the city in a playful and liberated way, and to actively situate themselves within it.

The sound walk addresses Ljubljana’s underpasses, largely abandoned areas, reveal the city’s inability to imagine new urban uses and meanings. Neglected underpasses beneath the paving stones of orderly streets and squares are becoming shelters for those unheard on the margins of society.

The author listens closely to the Ajdovščina underpass. Through real-time sound capture and processing, everyday noises, silences, footsteps and echoes are transformed into an immersive sonic experience that opens up a space for what has been left unspoken. It reveals moments of unexpected beauty and places the listener in relation to space as a living, multilayered organism of unheard realities.

The Ajdovščina underpass, built on the site of a former Emona cemetery, carries deeper historical layers. Walking through these underground corridors becomes a movement through the temporalities of the city, where life, death, memory and forgetting intertwine.

Pod(hod) is conceived as a collection of associations from a day in the lives of individuals on the margins of society. The titles of the sound segments, Tunings, Silent Prayers, Gatherings of the Found, Walk of Shame, Lives Before Shop Windows, Lullaby, Morning Again and A Fragile Confrontation with Reality, do not interpret these lives, but create a space of listening in which a sensitive, open relationship to the other and to the world can emerge.

The world holds you, like it or not.
It moves you with fire and wind when it’s hot.
You’re chasing your sleep and wasting your spot —
you better start living.
The world has you turning the dirt, unforgiving,
old gravity is pulling — but love, oh love,
the night that embraced you unraveled the night.

The artist takes a weather balloon as the starting point for her research and sonic journey. Used worldwide for meteorological measurements and weather forecasting, over 800 weather balloons are released daily. They rise through the atmosphere, exposed to changing air pressure, temperature, density and wind.

Our atmospheric imaginary journey begins at the entrance to the Ljubljana Castle funicular, which will carry us up to the castle. Once we reach a certain height, we will travel even further – following the tension and transformation of the balloon as it stretches to its breaking point: the sudden burst and fall. Afterwards, we will return by funicular to the foot of the castle hill.

The 40-minute sound composition combines recordings from meteorological instruments, field and studio sessions, interviews with experts and the tracking of the balloon’s path by an observer who descends, follows and collects data. We will follow the metaphorical journey of release, lifting, stretching, bursting, falling and landing. The sonic experience is guided by the artist’s voice, which explores moments of change, transformation, direction, speed, temperature, humidity, wind and more.

The layered soundscape shifts between the dreamlike and the scientific, offering intimate, physical, auditory and tactile stimuli that create a rich, multisensory experience.

Tu, čisto blizu is an invitation for participants to transform from passive walkers into active co-creators of the urban landscape, leaving behind a more visible imprint, a more visible trace.

On the level of both the individual and the group, the walk explores how we inhabit and move through the city, and what defines the nature of our encounters and interactions. It foregrounds the bodily dimension of experiencing the city and asks how the body might be placed within the predictable dynamics of urban life in a different way. It highlights the power of the moment when individuals step out of individualistic, fleeting observation of their surroundings and become aware of, give meaning to, and perhaps even alter their automated urban routes.

Through different situations and stops in the city, Tu, čisto blizu invites participants to walk through the city in a playful and liberated way, and to actively situate themselves within it.

Tu, čisto blizu is an invitation for participants to transform from passive walkers into active co-creators of the urban landscape, leaving behind a more visible imprint, a more visible trace.

On the level of both the individual and the group, the walk explores how we inhabit and move through the city, and what defines the nature of our encounters and interactions. It foregrounds the bodily dimension of experiencing the city and asks how the body might be placed within the predictable dynamics of urban life in a different way. It highlights the power of the moment when individuals step out of individualistic, fleeting observation of their surroundings and become aware of, give meaning to, and perhaps even alter their automated urban routes.

Through different situations and stops in the city, Tu, čisto blizu invites participants to walk through the city in a playful and liberated way, and to actively situate themselves within it.

The sound walk addresses Ljubljana’s underpasses, largely abandoned areas, reveal the city’s inability to imagine new urban uses and meanings. Neglected underpasses beneath the paving stones of orderly streets and squares are becoming shelters for those unheard on the margins of society.

The author listens closely to the Ajdovščina underpass. Through real-time sound capture and processing, everyday noises, silences, footsteps and echoes are transformed into an immersive sonic experience that opens up a space for what has been left unspoken. It reveals moments of unexpected beauty and places the listener in relation to space as a living, multilayered organism of unheard realities.

The Ajdovščina underpass, built on the site of a former Emona cemetery, carries deeper historical layers. Walking through these underground corridors becomes a movement through the temporalities of the city, where life, death, memory and forgetting intertwine.

Pod(hod) is conceived as a collection of associations from a day in the lives of individuals on the margins of society. The titles of the sound segments, Tunings, Silent Prayers, Gatherings of the Found, Walk of Shame, Lives Before Shop Windows, Lullaby, Morning Again and A Fragile Confrontation with Reality, do not interpret these lives, but create a space of listening in which a sensitive, open relationship to the other and to the world can emerge.

The world holds you, like it or not.
It moves you with fire and wind when it’s hot.
You’re chasing your sleep and wasting your spot —
you better start living.
The world has you turning the dirt, unforgiving,
old gravity is pulling — but love, oh love,
the night that embraced you unraveled the night.

This deep listening experience enables a closer connection with the space and landscape, with the meadows that surround us. The walk directs attention to the sonic traces of wild nature persisting within the cultural landscape. It highlights an acoustic ecology shaped through the collaboration of nature and people. What can we hear when we listen to the meadows?

The sound walk addresses Ljubljana’s underpasses, largely abandoned areas, reveal the city’s inability to imagine new urban uses and meanings. Neglected underpasses beneath the paving stones of orderly streets and squares are becoming shelters for those unheard on the margins of society.

The author listens closely to the Ajdovščina underpass. Through real-time sound capture and processing, everyday noises, silences, footsteps and echoes are transformed into an immersive sonic experience that opens up a space for what has been left unspoken. It reveals moments of unexpected beauty and places the listener in relation to space as a living, multilayered organism of unheard realities.

The Ajdovščina underpass, built on the site of a former Emona cemetery, carries deeper historical layers. Walking through these underground corridors becomes a movement through the temporalities of the city, where life, death, memory and forgetting intertwine.

Pod(hod) is conceived as a collection of associations from a day in the lives of individuals on the margins of society. The titles of the sound segments, Tunings, Silent Prayers, Gatherings of the Found, Walk of Shame, Lives Before Shop Windows, Lullaby, Morning Again and A Fragile Confrontation with Reality, do not interpret these lives, but create a space of listening in which a sensitive, open relationship to the other and to the world can emerge.

The world holds you, like it or not.
It moves you with fire and wind when it’s hot.
You’re chasing your sleep and wasting your spot —
you better start living.
The world has you turning the dirt, unforgiving,
old gravity is pulling — but love, oh love,
the night that embraced you unraveled the night.

The story opens perspectives on the architecture of Edvard Ravnikar and his collaborators in the construction of Cankarjev dom.

The authors incorporated numerous quotes and reflections by architects, as well as politicians and cultural figures connected with the building of Cankarjev dom. These are interwoven with poetry and drama by selected artists. The subtle and semantically multilayered soundwalk outlines the period of construction and the architecture of the building itself in the context of the present, offering a deeper understanding of its historical and cultural background.

The audio narrative also touches upon Ravnikar’s wider creative oeuvre, from the design of Republic Square as a demanding and long-term spatial intervention to his pedagogical work at the School of Architecture in Ljubljana. In his characteristic understanding of urban space, Ravnikar involved numerous architects and students who, in dialogue with politics and the broader professional field, laid the foundations for high-quality spatial design in a modernist Mediterranean spirit.

Even before water becomes something we need to protect, it is the stuff of dreams. This soundwalk begins with the awareness that we ourselves are bodies of water and that our responsibility to water is deeply connected to how we remember and imagine the world. Water, as an element, becomes a material conduit for our imagination and an extension of our connective tissues.

We draw on the works of Gaston Bachelard and Ivan Illich, thinkers deeply engaged with water, who argued that imagination is not merely the ability to form mental images but an embodied capacity that enables creative coexistence with the world. Bachelard describes water as the “eye of the world”—not only because it reflects the sky, but because its depths hold fragments of the past; deep water is a silent memory, an embodied symbol of how the past continually inhabits the present.

Our journey moves from clear, lively spring and river waters to heavier, dormant and dead waters. We walk among songs, verses and images, navigating the temporalities of different bodies of water – from surface currents to the riverbed depths; from the river of forgetfulness to the lake of memories. In an era of constant flow – of information, people, currencies and traffic – while navigating the rapids of time, we will build a temporary harbour at the “pool that contains the whole world”, in the “moment of the dream that contains the whole soul”.

The story opens perspectives on the architecture of Edvard Ravnikar and his collaborators in the construction of Cankarjev dom.

The authors incorporated numerous quotes and reflections by architects, as well as politicians and cultural figures connected with the building of Cankarjev dom. These are interwoven with poetry and drama by selected artists. The subtle and semantically multilayered soundwalk outlines the period of construction and the architecture of the building itself in the context of the present, offering a deeper understanding of its historical and cultural background.

The audio narrative also touches upon Ravnikar’s wider creative oeuvre, from the design of Republic Square as a demanding and long-term spatial intervention to his pedagogical work at the School of Architecture in Ljubljana. In his characteristic understanding of urban space, Ravnikar involved numerous architects and students who, in dialogue with politics and the broader professional field, laid the foundations for high-quality spatial design in a modernist Mediterranean spirit.