Artistic Portfolio
[BIO] dejana sekulić is a violinist, sound+silence explorer, composer-performer, and indisciplinary artist, born at 43°18’58.5”N 21°54’39.5”E. A passionate advocate for the music of our time, dejana holds a PhD from the University of Huddersfield (UK), where she conducted her doctoral studies at the Centre for Research in New Music (CeReNeM) and the Research Centre for Performance Practices (ReCePP), under the guidance of Philip Thomas, Aaron Cassidy, and Mary Bellamy. dejana's dissertation, titled “Temporality of the Impossible”, focuses on the multifaceted process of preparation of complex pieces from the late 20th and 21st centuries. In February 2022 NMC/Huddersfield Contemporary Records released her solo violin CD bearing the same title. dejana obtained her bachelor’s degree at the Faculty of Art University of Niš (Serbia), followed by Masters studies and Post Master specialisation in music at the Royal Conservatory Brussels (with Igor Oistrakh, Valery Oistrakh, and Bart Bouckaert), and an advanced program for contemporary music lead by ICTUS (Brussels) and Spectra (Gent) ensembles at the School of Arts Gent (Belgium). She actively performs as a soloist, is part of a violin and live electronics duo with Gilles Doneux, of LAPS Ensemble, and is part of the art and education research collective People Coming from NowHere. dejana also creates and develops works in the fields of interactive sound installations and multimedia.
For more detailed biography and more information on activiteis, please visit: http://dejanasekulic.com or consult the CV below.
░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░
[ Temporality of the Impossible ]
"Temporality of the Impossible: exploring the multifaceted process of preparation of complex pieces from the late 20th and 21st centuries" is an artistic research, that started as a personal curiosity but grew into a PhD research that dejana conducted at the CeReNeM and HuCPeR, at the University of Huddersfield (UK).
MORE INFO on NMC/HCR website
**ABSTRACT: "Temporality of the Impossible" is a research project about my artistic practice on performing late 20th- and 21st-century solo violin repertoire with multi-dimensional difficulties. Within this repertoire, I focused on pieces that, despite minute-detailed annotations in the score, intentionally escape the extreme fixity that they at first glance seem to be designed to achieve. As such, they impose a novel approach to the interface between performer, instrument, notation, movement, and sound, and thus demand redefining of performance practice and practicing.
The challenges begin from the notation and range over destabilased sonic identity of the instrument, extreme combinations and successions of techniques, challenging meanings of physical actions and gestures, and going as far as using the non-linear passing of time and using performance space as part of the musical material. With these kinds of challenges as a starting point, the sounding outcome of each of these pieces can greatly vary from one performance to another.
The thesis is an account of the process, in which my explorations aimed to reexamine, deconstruct, and reconfigure understandings and approaches to the interpretation and performance practice of a classically trained violinist in relation to this chosen repertoire. Through the process of deconstructing and unlearning, I had to develop methodologies that facilitated learning how to retain, navigate, and channel surplus amounts of information which was often contradictory. My main aim was to establish ways that would allow for embodiment of potentials of all the material of the piece individually, rather than fixing one interpretation during the preparation process and thus imposing undesired hierarchy between the material. In this way, the material could continue to evolve and organically build the interpretation always anew in the moment of the performance, according to the design of the pieces. Accepting this continuous process as the necessary tool of the performative vocabulary in the pieces and its protean nature was a significant part of the research.
The research outcomes presented in the thesis include recordings of performances alongside a detailed account of the process leading to performance. Both the performances and the methodology can feed into current thought on performance practice, and the methodologies could be adopted by other violinists dealing with works from late 20th- and 21st-century solo violin repertoire.**
Some of the questions asked revolve around the topics of how difficult is the “impossible”, what characterizes the “impossible” and, in the case of the contemporary violin music and performance, how permanent is the “impossibility”... how can we reshape the understanding of aesthetic values in contemporary violin music... how can better understanding of aesthetics help in overcoming the challenges - of music, of extended techniques for playing, notation...
Details about the research can be found on temproalityoftheimpossible.com and the Thesis is also available via University of Huddersfield’s Pure Repository.
Besides concert performances, this work includes regular “Performance+Talk Sessions”, and in addition to the the CD published by HCR, the research contains collection of audio and video recordings. Some excerpts from some of the piece can be heard here:
░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░
[ selection from recent works (compositions, installations, and multimedia performance works) ]
⌈ conversations with my future self [2024], for solo performer with a telegraph key, live video and playback
"conversations with my future self" is part of a diptych piece "conversations with my past-future self", which was premiered on May 26th, 2024 at the launch of Music Biennale Zagreb. The piece has two layers: a sonic landscape and a live cutting of this landscape. The sonic landscape is composed from superposing sonic interpretations of phrases from Ghassan Zaqtan’s poem “Fingers” (from Banners 1984), words of which have firstly gone through the treatment of translation to morse and recordings of me, my sister, and our two cousins that our grandmother made with a tape recorder reciting a poem “Venčić drugarstva” (A crown of friendship). The silences that cut through this sonic layer in performance, played with the telegraph key, are in this piece mostly calculated and controlled, and the patch reading them is projecting as the output statistics of deaths in Gaza between October 7th 2023 and May 20th 2024. More about this work/series can be found here.
⌈ Visualisation [remix] [2024], for one performer and multi-channel video
The "solo performer with multi-channel video" is my concept-realisation piece, based on the piece by Sam Perkin from 2021, "Visualization", which, in the original version, was written for strings [orchestra]. However, in its final form when performed, Visualisation [remix], gains its own weight of being. I worked through exploring multiple temporalities of "one". Superposing the time capsules of one self, from different moments, is an attempt to illustrate the continuous breaking and reconciling of connection with and within self. As we move forward, as we continuously grow into what we are supposed to become. The performance material for this piece consists of a six-channel video, of which two channels are to be projected each on one large screen, and four channels are projected each on one individual 1m wide 4m tall tull scrims (or led screens) placed among the audience. The disposition of four of the projections among the audience allows for these "past-selves" to be among the audience, to become audience while being a performer, to interact with the audience through the proximity, to blur the barrier between the "stage" and the "audience". More about this piece can be found here.
⌈ the vast bright of the dark [2024], a sonic poem/sound-light installation
"the vast bright of the dark" is a sonic poem that uses sound-portals to traverse through time and space. Inspired by the mythology surrounding Europa yet placed in Galerie Ravenstein in Brussels, this sonic poem is constructed with the very simple concept of dualities: Light and Dark, lightness and heaviness (darkness), motion (movement) and motionless, sound and silence, freedom and captivity. Neither existing without the other: the light does not exist without the dark (or as Etel Adnan says without the Night), sound without silence nor silence without sound, present without the past, past without present, and future without neither, notion of absence without there being presence. Installation was realised in Galerie Ravenstein in collaboration with ncbham architecture&design studio, for Bright Festival 2024 (Brussels, Belgium). More about the work here.
⌈ gardened [2023], three-part fixed audio-visual installation, with sound work hosted online and physical objects located on-site. A sound map, located between times and places, hosted online, to be experienced in public spaces, designed for Orangeries de Bierbais. This work consists of three fixed audio entities. Each one contains superposition of times and places in sound. While each of the three pieces can be listened anywhere in the world (as they are web-based hosted), bringing the listener into the Orangeries de Bierbais, they have been created having in mind they would be listened on a specific spot in the Orangeries. Each piece contains sounds harvested in the Orangeries; on various occasions and in various weather conditions. Trees, branches, leaves, grass, stones, pebbles... in their stillness and moved by winds. Water – static and moving – pond, river, rain... Living creatures, especially insects and birds. The listener, standing in the garden, is simultaneously hearing and listening to the garden of the present times and the same spot in the garden in the past times, creating a hybrid time of existence of this particular place. More about the work here.
⌈ time and time again [2023], for violin, viola, and electronics in three sections. Although the sections can be performed integrally, the intention is that these sections appear in various moments of the performance, intertwined between other pieces on the program. As such, the piece time and time again begins to feel like it is slicing one duration of time (that is the whole performance), becoming current time, recuring time, and, to the audience, through the anticipation of not-knowing when or whether next appearance will come, future time. Or – it is starting to feel like the piece’s duration is interrupted by time and these other occurrences (pieces) in it. More about the piece here.
⌈ Pathways [2022], a live screen-score for any sound making performer, with or without instrument. The piece has a live score, and must be projected and be visible to the audience during the performance. The score mixes loading fixed elements and random selection between sets of parameters it has been told to pick from. In this piece I am using pre-recorded media, visual materials and live animation, dynamic media, and interactivity through live input of sound (using pitch and volume recognition, in radial spatialisation). In the performance, there is a constant interaction between the live musician/performer, pre-recorded but live randomised sounds, visualisations and animation. More about the piece can be found here and the score can be found here (via performance note page).
⌈ Soundfeeder (k) [2022] is an installation, one object from the collection of wooden sound boxes, taking inspiration from bird- and bee-feeders. Each box contains a different soundscape, played through an integrated speaker/player system. They are movable objects that can be carried and placed in different spots of the estate, altering their soundscape and therefore perception and experience for the visitor. More about this work can be found here.
⌈ #10 [2022] is my interpretation-performance concept for Johannes Kredielr’s <Music-19> graphic scores series. In creating this piece-interpretation I used 3D animation, elements of Beethoven’s life (from letters to and from Beethoven), elements from Beethoven's last string quartet. More about this work can be found here.
⌈ black box [2021] is an interactive sound-touch activated- installation created as a response to Carolyn Chen's "Go to Sleep Music", which was part of the project "mumei TEN: residues". The performance and exhibition took place in km28 in Berlin, on December 18th 2021. More about this work can be found here.
⌈ #6#7#17 [2020] are piece-interpretations for three graphic scores from Johannes Kreidler’s <Music-19> graphic scores series, some which exist only as fixed video, and some which also have live-performance versions (with video, animation, pre-recorded and live sound). More about this work can be found here.
⌈ how the mountains were formed [2020] is a fixed audio media created as one of the audio pieces for Maria Sappho’s project 'Rocks I have Takenin. The piece can be heard here.
⌈ what might the wind sound like among those leaves? [2020] is a graphic score for undetermined performer / or a graphic performance for 9 people during an online meeting {zoom/jitsi/skype/…}]. More about this work can be found here.
⌈ Score by Spaces [2019/2021] is a graphic score-frame for three Spaces and undetermined performer(s). In this piece I wish for the three different spaces to become the composer, facilitated by the performer. Each Space contributes a different aspect in the process of composing the piece. More about this piece can be found here.
⌈ memories of things that will never happen [2019-2020] is an interactive web-based piece. More about this work can be found here.
⌈ Wishes for the Future [2017- ] series is an open-ended collection of works, that are made at/around the end of a calendar year. These are pieces that also act as wishing-cards. Over the years, these pieces have taken different forms - handwritten scores, interactive web-hosted pieces, animations. More about this work can be found here.
⌈ Reading Poetry [2014 - ] for various instruments, or a telegraph key, with and without electronics and video. The series is based on morse code, using various sound/silence principles of interaction. In Reading Poetry selected poems are being read with sound. While sounding material is portraying the performer’s interpretation of the poem, the flow is being invaded by silence. Different poems can be told in different ways. These pieces use morse code as a base to translate durations into rhythm. The translated durations can be those of sound or of silence or of both. More about this work can be found here.
░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░
[ Interrupted. Continued ]
performance for one performer with violin and telegraph key, with electronics and video
concept and performance by dejana sekulić
Interrupted. Continued is a performance reflecting on different kinds of displacements ([e]migratory, educational, emotional, personal, socio-cultural) that, as the inevitable part of living, often bringing sense of broken connections not only with the outside world but within self.
But these ruptures are a temporary state, a passage that leads to becoming differently connected. A path that moves across and beyond the borders (of familiar, of a country, of...) and disconnections, and is a (life)path that likewise inevitably creates moments for recognizing and adopting these new connections and ways of belonging — within self, to self, to community. Informed by the past but refusing the politics that draw borders, break up lands and people, this is a way of finding belonging to time-space present and future, to geography, to lands and people.
This is an indisciplinary performance that relies on different media, mixing them together to create a coherent flow of narrating the story through the pieces placed in the performance. This search is pursued through sonic and visual vertigo games, evoked in different ways, with music by Miika Hyytiäinen, Johannes Kreidler, Solomiya Moroz, Sam Perkin, and dejana sekulić.
Program includes following works:
Johannes Kreidler: >Music-19< #17 (2020), graphic score series - interpretation with live performer, video, and playback by dejana sekulić
dejana sekulić: conversations with my past self (2024), for a performer with telegraph key, electronics, and video (from Reading Poetry Series)
Solomiya Moroz: artefacts of presence (2017-18), for violin, electronics, video and motion sensor
dejana sekulić: conversations with my future self (2024), for a performer with telegraph key, electronics, and video (from Reading Poetry Series)
Sam Perkin: Visualization, for string orchestra (2021), 2024 version for one musician live, playback, and multi-channel video by dejana sekulić
Miika Hyytiäinen: Impossibilities for Violin (2020/2024)*, version for solo violin and 2 channel video
LINKS
⌈ Music Biennale Zagreb performance announcement
⌈ Music Biennale Zagreb: New breakup sensibilities: dejana sekulić live
⌈ Coverage of the performance and Music Biennale Zagreb launch on HRT (Croatian National Television)
⌈ Festival prelaunch: Music Biennale Zagreb 33
░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░
[ The Bow, the Key, the Silence, and the Eternity ]
for one performer with violin, telegraph key, electronics, and video
concept and performance by dejana sekulić
This 45-minute performance is sonic storytelling through 4 acts. Somewhere in distance, a relation between these four acts is process of re-locating: searching, finding, replacing, placing. And the audience becomes part of this journey, at times quite actively. There are four pieces in the performance, each deeply rooted in being a violinist, but each questioning what a violinist in today’s time is, for today, for in the future.
Throughout this performance there is a continuous back and forth of asking, through practice of doing, when is an instrumentalist a performer and a performer an instrumentalist. This performance is an indisciplinary act that relies on different media–new music techniques, electronics, video–mixing them together to create coherent pieces then placed in the performance. By inviting audience to actively participate in early part of the performance, the rules of spectator of the art and doer of the art get blurred, possibly creating a more welcoming performance art and new music experience.
Four pieces:
Johannes Kreidler: >Music-19< #17, graphic score (2020)
Johannes Kreidler: >Music-19< #10, graphic score (2020)
Dejana Sekulic: Still Trapped, for straight telegraph key, electronics, and video (2022)
Johannes Kreidler: BOW, for violin, audio, and video playback (2020)
ACT#1
Radiating acrobatics even as a still image, graphic score #17 from Johannes Kreidler's >Music-19< series inspired and facilitated one possible (be)coming of thinking about the extension of the bow (as an object facilitating sound) and bowing (as movement facilitating sound). All the bow extending and extended bowings in new music sometimes feel like an extra pair of bows and hands could be of use, so in this interpretation this is exactly what is in play. This live performance is based on the ideas drawn from the graphic score: the score itself is made into an animation, and that animation is paired with live actions of the performer. The live performer present in the space engages with extremely slow actions, body appearing seemingly static and silent. But it is then simultaneously excessively active – multiplied with projection of other pre-filmed self over the physical body present in the space (normal, front, projection is preferred way of projecting the video).
ACT#2
The second piece in the performance is an interpretation of graphic score #10, baring a title “Beethoven’s >Ear-trumpets<” and coming from the same >Music-19< series. Here, Kreidler offers some fresh food for imagining the process of listening, through creating abstract, aurally implausible ear trumpets. Yet when I look at them, I cannot help but start thinking of them as maybe plausible if one is to start thinking of different ways to hear and listen. How one might feel and hear, beyond the memory of how it should?
Through the performance, I try to share those thoughts in an active way by inviting the audience to join the exploration of ways of hearing and listening, and the idea that more perceptiveness and continuous adjusting to better hear, listen, understand is an eternal process where eternity becomes the "shortest possible" portion of time.
The sound material is derived from one chord of Beethoven's last string quartet, written shortly before his death. If sound and time would stop and one would be able to experience the inner vibrations with a sense of eternal lasting–what would this sound feel like? If one would be able to keep the intensity and energy and aura of the sixteenth-note length Beethoven wrote on that last sixteenth note of bar 29 from movement III of the String quartet no.16 op.135, how would that sound field feel like, when lasting indefinitely? How he might have felt it, beyond the memory of how it sounded? How one might feel and hear, beyond the memory of sounding?
ACT#3
"Still Trapped" comes from the "Reading Poetry" series, which is a series of pieces where selected poems or phrases are being read with sound. While sounding material is portraying my interpretation of the poem, the flow is being invaded by the Silence.
"Listening is an act of community, which takes space, time, and silence."- Ursula le Guin, Importance of Imagination (2002)
The former layer is achieved by translating chosen text with morse code to rhythm patters. These patterns are in this piece extended to extremely slow speed, where it becomes difficult follow the pattern, pushing for feeling and understanding the text through specific timbres and characters of sound material. The other layer is Silence, the voice of the space. A telegraph key is used to cut sound during the performance and introduce this voice to the audience. The telegraph key and the body of the performer become the tools, an instrument, which Silence uses to express themselves. The durations of silences are translated through the patch through the morse code into text, and then projected on the screen as text/symbols. “Still Trapped” is performed with sounding poem entirely created from acoustic solo violin (prerecorded) using a fragment of Sappho’s poetry and with calculating silence within the computer with a scripted response.
"Even though you are approaching Sappho in translation, that is no reason you should miss the drama of trying to read a papyrus torn in half or riddled with holes or smaller than a postage stamp." - Anne Carson, If Not, Winter (2002)
ACT#4
In the last piece, the physical presence of the violinist returns. But there is an abstraction and transformation of this self. Johannes Kreidler’s BOW focuses on one element of violin, the bow, and uses motion-capturing of my playing to do so. Suddenly, the bow and right-hand movements are detached from the performer and the instrument, and they expand into creating a life of their own. As audience listens and watches the piece unfold, the video exposes in minute detail potentials of rich life this one element can achieve, once given more space and attention.
VIDEOS
░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░
[ Gilles Doneux+dejana sekulic ]
dejana+Gilles join their individualities exploring the effects of togetherness of imagining and discovering: what does it mean, how it affects each one individually and how the two collectively.
“In dense portions of the Milky Way, stellar images appear to overlap, giving the effect of a near-continuous sheet of light . . . The effect is a grand illusion. In reality . . . the nighttime sky is remarkably empty. Of the volume of space only 1 part in 1021 [one part in a quintillion] is filled with stars.” (Kaler)
“The sensation of tone happens when human perception reaches attentional limits where microevents occur too quickly in succession to be heard as discrete
events.”(Roads)
‘What Hides in Grains of Sound’ is a modal setting in which the individual and the collective imagining of two people occur and intertwine, to explore the illusive probability of slowing down time to have perceivable access to a moment of a singular grain of a sounding micro event. And then lead this experience back into motion.
Through this work, Dejana and Gilles explore the moving and still time in which this grain exists, testing possibilities, characteristics and roles of acoustic and electronic instruments and playing with actions, interactions and hierarchies, they compose and decompose and reconstruct larger soundscapes through experimental composition and performance practice for violin and electronics.
░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░
[ Duo Momitani - sekulic ]
Duo Momitani-Sekulic started their collaboration out of their mutual interest and love for music, more precisely contemporary classical music. The spectrum of expression, exploration of depth of music and musical thought with vast possibilities through compositions both conventional and non-conventional, way of using and understanding violin and piano, as solo and duo, presents never-ending challenge. In their collaboration they strive to achieve and overcome musical and technical challenges and bring out the beauty of music today, rather masterfully crafted into art of composition and in the service of substantial content that creates aural world of power, sensitivity and beauty. Their aim is to present music that dazzles with such extremes as luminance and darkness, sensitivity and roughness, noise and silence. They share feelings on stage, among each other and with public but as well off stage, while preparing and creating repertoires, choosing pieces and collaborating with composers.
In the future, Nao and Dejana will perform at the Royal Academy of Belgium on January 2015. Furthermore, they are also part of the LAPS, ensemble of five acoustic instruments and two laptops that plays and explores possibilities of acoustic and electronic sonorities, to the point of fusion that abandons the importance of source of where and what is acoustic and what is electronic.
The duo's most notable concet is “Sound Stories". This is a concept in which the sounds (different, unconventional and those that are challenging the perception of “what is beautiful sound”) found in the pieces are associated with descriptive words that can lead the audible experience of understanding and following the story of the piece told. This edition of “Sound Stories” is going to emphasis on gestures used for producing the sound, gestures that produce timbres that we are not used to hearing from these instruments. And yet, none of these gestures and techniques are used just for the sakes of “new” or “different” but rather masterfully crafted through art of composition and in the service of substantial content that creates aural world of power, sensitivity and beauty. Music that dazzles with both extremes: luminance and darkness. It opens empirical self discussion of the listener, while presenting pieces that can be described with: pink noise, texture, acoustic vs. / ft. electronic..
Recent performances include performances in La Maison des Musiques, MiM, L'Academie Roayale de Belgique, L'atelier Courtois
░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░
[ LAPS Ensemble ]
LAPS = L a p t o p & A c o u s t i c P r o d u c t i o n S y s t e m
LAPS, young Belgian Ensemble, arose from the desire to create an original ensemble which associates amplified instruments with laptops. The first idea was to provoke human and gestural interactions, imagining a "chamber-music concept" emerging from the relation between "acoustic" musicians and "electronic" performers. Launched in 2013 on the initiative of the composers Claude Ledoux (manager and conductor of the ensemble) and Gilles Gobert (member of the Laptop duo KNAPP with the composer Gilles Doneux), LAPS has a goal of awakening and creating a new repertoire for this original group of instruments and musicans. Besides a policy of guest composers, the ensemble also promotes its own composers. The concept of the performance often includes program that alternates between "written" compositions and improvisations.
password for all videos: laps
For more videos/audios, please visit the Media section of the LAPS website.
[ microMARCO ]
Microcosm of macrocosm becomes macrocosm of its own when focus shifts - from your perception being the membrane within which the sound exists, to you being the particle within the sound.
The concept of this performance is based on evoking experiencing sound and music, from barely audible to extreme expressions through sound by alternating pieces that would offer a spectator a full spectrum of various sonorities. The performance itself has two variations, just instrument (violin) solos or alternating between solo violin pieces and sound installations.
Performances until now included pieces by Aperghis, Francois, Gobert, Lachenmann, Sciarrino, Steen-Andersen, Sekulic
░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░
[ Sensonarium - a living instrooment ]
Sensonarium 1.0 - a living instrooment study (2015/2016)
What if you were a particle of a sound? If you could perceive sound as being inside of it?
The interactive sound installation Sensonarium is imagined as a representation of the membrane that holds a sound. Being inside of this membrane and feeling the sound, one becomes a kind of internal particle. Through analyzing microscopic slides, this work exhibits the visual structures of different elements (water, wood, pollen, earth, metal, tissue...). Further research examines different sounds and frequencies with cymatics, and then pairing up each element with combinations of sounds. As a result, visual images have their equivalent signature sounds, their air vibrations, their voices. The intended effect is for the spectator, while interacting with the installation, to feel these vibrations and frequencies being and becoming a part of their insides, becoming the atom. Elements’ interiors will thus feel closer to the spectator and become one with the nature of being.
The significent work on "Sensonarium" started developing during the residancy at Q-O2 (Brussels), in October 2015. The continuance of the research, that is curently ongoing, is taking place in I.S.I.B. - Institut Supérieur Industriel de Bruxelles. The process of research consists, among other, in examining images of microscopic slides of different elements (water, wood, pollen, earth, metal…) for their visual structure. Using the system of examining different sounds and frequencies with cymatics, examining their visual structure and then stacking and combining them, the resulted image of these combined sounds becomes equivalent image to an "image" of a sound, if we could see the sound under the microscope. These combinations of frequencies, sounds, come to represent the closest visual equivalent to microscope slides that will in return be assigned to each of the examined elements and become their signature sound, the voice of the element.
The paired element and its sound would be further used in creating a piece and small interactive installation. Upon triggering and manipulating the installation the spectator can sense the vibration of this element, and thus feel as if he became part of its voice.
Although small scale installations are being made, along with acquired results, a 1:1 scale interactive installation is in plan, which could welcome a spectator inside, for experiencing this vibration in whole, making his perception of sound switch from his hearing being the membrane within which the sound exists, to being a particle within sound.
This work was selected and presented on the CTM Festival 2016
░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░
[ being (all my heart) ]
Sound+touchable drawing installation piece, "being [all my heart]. This video features drawing’s reaction to being "exposed" to the human touch. The work, interpretation of Yoko Ono's "Beat piece" from Grapefruit, was made by Dejana, to accompany the performance by edges ensemble on hcmf// 2019.
*recommended watching/listening with (preferably base amplifying) headphones.
░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░
[ "Tape Piece II: Room Pieces" ]
This sound+smell installation piece is interpretation of Yoko Ono's "Tape Piece II: Room Pieces" from Grapefruit, and it was made by Dejana to accompany the performance by edges ensemble on hcmf// 2019.
░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░
[ Sheet Music: the Performance ]
"sheet music: the performance" are loop animations and kinetic sculptures that give motion to otherwise static graphics of Johannes Kreidler's notation based pieces "Sheet Music", where this movement wants to become the sounding of the graphics. These interpretations are imagined to be the objects of sound and music giving their eternal music performances, yet remaining truthful to composer's original intentions with the "Sheet Music" works, to 'convey the aura of sound and allow the viewer to imagine music'.
For a musician and a performer, sheet music represents a recording of a sound, of a movement, in the form of text and symbols. Symbols that they are then to translate into sound and music. To play music and make sound is to make air move in a particular, hearing-perceivable way. Kreidler says for "Sheet Music" that it is imaginary music. The pieces are not to be interpreted by playing on an instrument, and certainly not improvised. They become only when imagined in one's head. As Kreidler gives no specific notes nor restrictions about the movement itself, as a performer, there had to be a way to make these pieces move. Without sounding. Without improvising. The following are music performances of these pieces, subtracted of sounding, of the presence of the performer's body, of the instrument... There is only the movement. The sounding, the music, is still left to be created in the imagination of the perceiver.
Pieces from Johannes Kreidler's "Sheet Music" featured in "Sheet Music: the Performance" include: Alcohol Bed, All hung, Aura, Box Unlocked, calm rhythm, Candle, Depo 10, Forest, Getting Less, grid, On the Scale, one step further, Panorama, Side Effect, That's You, There, Tombeau, Turm 5...
More about this work.
░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░
[ "ELLES" ]
Three duos (trios), created in collaboration with P.A.R.T.S. dancers, with music for solo violin “Elles” by Geoffrey François.
With dancers/choreographers: Régis Badel, Lav Crncević, Ellada Damianou, Frank Gizycki, Eileen Van Os, Souleymane Sanogo. Special thanks to Johanne Saunier and Alain Franco.
Performances took place on December 15th, 16th an 17th 2014, March 8th and 22nd 2015 and July 1st and 4th 2015.
password: elles
░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░
[ MaD duo ]
The MaD duo is improvisation based duo for harp, violin and sounding objects, working on exploring the connections of visual and sound, and our perception through their play. The performances mix live interactions of sound and movement, as well as interaction of music and video and they often follow a theme. One of the specially designed concepts, “Creature Thoughts”, is imagined as interpretation of thoughts and features of different creatures through sound. This concept as well has an educational component, and the duo is developing its special edition aimed at children.
"MaD" are Maria Jose Jeanin and Dejana Sekulic.
░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░
[ Soundspotting ]
concept+realization: Dejana Sekulic
Aristotle said that the world exists as an imprint in our mind and in this sense everything is interpretation (Aristotle “On Interpretation”). If performance is “the execution of an action; something accomplished” (Oxford Dictionary), then in this sense every sharing and showing of these interpretations can be a performance. A concert is a performance, a theatre play is a performance, a book, a song… But then it should be easy to imagine an existing space for The Performance. An event whose purpose is creating an experience, a platform for experimenting with all aspects known, and maybe unknown, to mankind that can explore and evaluate perception of time and space, and their inhabitation and purpose. An experience that offers a challenge to reexamine and rethink on our own perception and possibilities to create a reality so convincing that it can shake and question the seemingly even most concrete beliefs.
The idea of rethinking possibilities for a performance based on experiencing through sound not just experiencing sound reached one of its articulations in a performance called "Soundspotting”. A parcours that took place on April 2nd 2015 in the Bijloke Campus. Envisioned as a parcours that offers a playground for perception of space through sound and objects that sound, it aimed to engage both the observer and the performer and give them the opportunity to explore and discover alternating through a dialogue between alive being (a performer) and inanimate objects (sculptures/installations) who inhabit space in their own moments in time and temporality. While sometimes the performer (alive being) is becoming the sound object and thus inanimate object itself, and the sculptures/installations (inanimate objects) with their sounding characteristics becoming alive (human), this dialogue between animate and non-animate is not just a narrative for audience, but possibility to explore: “What is all sound?”, “What makes a space?”, “How do we perceive sound?”, “How do we perceive space?”, “What makes us determined the walls and can our ears take charge and overwrite what our eyes describe as a tangible?”. Thus, the premise of the concept was to contour and describe the space with sound, as if that space is determined by it, making the sound become a material thing that can be seen and touched.
Performers: GAME (Sara Baldini, Cédric De Bruycker, Maria Jose-Jeannin, Kaya Kuwabara, Benjamin Maneyrol, Ruben Martinez Orio, Hannah Reardon-Smith, Adam Rossenblatt, Gwenaëlle Rouger, Dejana Sekulić, Primož Sukič, with Lucile Buffet, Diego Coutinho, Inga Huld Hákonardóttir, Daan Janssens, Tom Pauwels, Stijn Ubaghs and Jasna Veličković), KASK Multimedia (Leontien Allemeersch, together with Esther Schelfhout, Femke Fredrix, with Hannah Vanspauwen and Benjamin Cools, Anna de Rijk), KASK Drama (Briek Lesage, Stien Sampers, Arne De Tremerie, Louise Bergez, Nona Demey, Kjell Muylle, Khalid Koujili, Louis Janssens, Naomi van der Horst, Imke Mol, Carine van Bruggen, Menzo Kircz, Sabien Van Moorter, Midas De Saedeleir, Marthe Schneider, Mats Vandroogenbroeck, Freek De Craecker, David Van Dijcke, Flor Vanseveren, Adja Fassa, Marie Mignolet, Simon Baetens, Faustijn De Ruyck, Salomé Mooij, Rosie Sommers, Timo Sterckx, Eleonore Van Godtsenhoven )
Realised with help and support of: Tom Pauwels, Lukas Pairon, Hans Bryssinck, Kristof Van Gestel, Jan Steen, Fabrice Delecluse, Shila Anaraki, Laurent Derycke, Régis Dragonetti, Sara Smalbrugge, Ilse den Hond, Hans Roels, Leo Verlinden, Marc Goethals, Stijn Schollaert, Jan Vanhalewyn, Kristof Ellertz
Program included:
•Mark Applebaum: “Rabbit Hole” (2012), for 8 performers and conductor (3 percussionists, flute, trumpet, violin, viola and violoncello)
•David Helbich: “KEINE-MUSIK: Ohrstücke / NO-MUSIC: earpieces” (2009/2014), composition for ears
•Mauro Lanza: “I Funerali dell’Anarchico Acciarito” (2009) for 6 performers playing futurists instruments)
•Sarah Nemtsov: “ZIMMR I-III” (2013), for 8 musicians (Harp, Kaosspad, Bass Flute, Bass Clarinet and String Quartet)
•Jasna Veličković: “Hipnotik” (2015), for two Velicon performers (*Velicon is a new custom designed magnet instrument, invented and created by Jasna Veličković, composer-inventor-performer)
•“De verkenning en het gebruik van de ruimte” by Leontien Allemeersch
•"We can not make It disappear #1” and “We can not make It disappear #2”, by Femke Fredrix
•“Mais oui”, by Anna de Rijk
•“Opbouw en afbraak en opbouw en afbraak van de/een gezamenlijke utopie en hoe dat dan klinkt. Een exploratie.”, a work developed and performed by Khalid Koujili, Louis Janssens, Naomi van der Horst, Imke Mol, Carine van Bruggen.
•“Het gaat over geluid”, a work developed and performed by Briek Lesage, Stien Sampers, Arne De Tremerie, Louise Bergez, Nona Demey, Kjell Muylle
•“Luistert”, a work developed and performed by Menzo Kircz, Sabien Van Moorter, Midas De Saedeleir, Marthe Schneider, Mats Vandroogenbroeck
•“Sounddating”, a work developed and performed by Freek De Craecker, David Van Dijcke, Flor Vanseveren, Adja Fassa, Marie Mignolet
•“Het leven een geluidsaanwijzing”, a work developed and performed by Simon Baetens, Faustijn De Ruyck, Salomé Mooij, Rosie Sommers, Timo Sterckx, Eleonore Van Godtsenhoven
░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░
[ "Where Do We Go from Here?" ]
"Where Do We Go from Here?" - following the footsteps of thoughts of exceptional artists
The concept of this artistic research (or rather artistic journey) is dealing, expressing and searching for new technique, technical expressions, contemporary music lines and meaning, thus broadening violinists perceptions, music and repertoire. The work documents conversations, thoughts and experiences of artists and musicans and is shared through, sometimes short sometimes not so short, videos. The idea is to simply offer a source and inforamtion, to anyone who finds him/herself in search for inspiration, ideas, motivation...
░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░
[ other notable performances ]
⌈ 14.11.2023. violin+, solo violin works [with electronics/video/preparations] by Blecharz, da Costa, Iannotta, Kreidler, Michael, Nemtsov, Perini, and Sekulic at echoraum (Vienna, Austria)
⌈ 21.10.2023. violin+, solo violin works [with electronics/video/preparations] by Blecharz, Iannotta, Kreidler, Michael, Perini, and sekulic at festival Gibanja (Zagreb, Croatia)
⌈ 09.06.2023. "the mass of a sound, entering my body", solo perofrmance at noism Festival (Novi Sad, Serbia)
⌈ 04.06.2023. "gardened" sound installation at Orangeries de Bierbais (Belgium)
⌈ 20.05.2023. violin+, solo violin works [with electronics] by Sovral, da Costa (creation), Oliveira, Kreidler, Sekulic at Projeto DME / Lisboa Incomum (Lisbon, Portugal)
⌈ 14.04.2023. "violin+", perofrmance for solo violin works with extentions to the instrument and/or electronics, featuring works by Anahita Abbasi, Wojtek Blecharz, Johannes Kreidler, Julie Michael, Alessandro Perini, and Dejana Sekulic. Perofrmance at Contemporary Insight's Salon Series (Leipzing, Germany)
⌈ 15.02.2023, "The Bow, the Key, the Silence, the Ways, and the Eternity", performance at SMOG (Brussels, Belgium), for one performer, with violin, telegraph key, electronics, and video, with works by Johannes Kreidler and dejana sekulic
⌈ 21.01.2023. "Extended Originals", performance with Victor Guaita. With pieces by Sam Perkin, Johannes Kreidler, Thierry de Mey, Dejana Sekulic at DasHaus (Brussels, Belgium)
⌈ 29.10.2022. "Temporality of the Impossible" performnace with solo violin works by Dario Buccino, Aaron Cassidy, Clara Iannotta, and Liza Lim at Lisboa Incomum (Lisbon, Portugal)
⌈ 14.09. 2022. LOOP Festival duo with Gilles Doneux, with music by Jean-Pierre Deluze, Doneux/Sekulic, and Jen-Luc Fafchamps [WP] at Espace Senghor (Brussels, Belgium)
⌈29.09.2022. sound installation "Soundfeeder (k)" for philosophical-artistic intervention(s) "Le Temps Du Peysage", at Orangeries de Bierbais proposed by PhD in One Night/People Coming from NowHere collective (Orangeries de Bierbais, Belgium)
⌈ 24.05.2022. Temporality of the Impossible performance, with pieces by Clara Iannotta, Evan Johnson, Rebecca Saunders, Cathy Milliken, Aaron Cassidy, Liza Lim, and Dario Buccino at Unerhoerte Musik, Berlin (Germany)
⌈ 03.04.2022. "Temporality of the Impossible" performnace with solo violin works by Dario Buccino, Aaron Cassidy, Clara Iannotta, and Liza Lim at Associazione per la Music Contemporanea Curva Minore (Palermo, Italy)
⌈ 02.03.2022. solo violin performance with works by Anahita Abbasi, Andrew Daniels, Einar Torfi Einarsson, Clara Iannotta, Johannes Kreidler, and Lucio Tasca in Phipps Hall (Huddersfield, UK)
⌈ 01.03.2022. "The Bow, the Key, the Silence, the Ways, and the Eternity", for one performer, with violin, telegraph key, electronics, and video, with works by Johannes Kreidler and dejana sekulic at Create Lab (Huddersfield, UK)
⌈ 11.02.2022. CD "Temporality of the Impossible"release, for HCR/NMC (UK). Works by: Clara Iannotta, Dario Buccino, Rebecca Saunders, Liza Lim, Evan Johnson, Cathy Miliken, Aaron Cassidy
⌈ 22.11.2021. at hcmf// festival (UK), with solo violin pieces from the "Temporality of the Impossible" project (Dario Buccino's "Finalmente il tempo è intero nº 16" and Liza Lim's "The Su Song Star Map"), at St Paul's Hall Huddersfield (UK)
⌈ 30.10.2021. Andrew Greenwald's "A Thing Made Whole" [WP], with Contemporary Insights at Kulturnhalle Leipzig (Germany)
⌈ 29.10.2021. Andrew Greenwald's "A Thing Made Whole" [WP], with Contemporary Insights at Kulturnhalle Leipzig (Germany)
⌈ 24.10.2021. "Temporality of the Impossible" performance+talk session for solo violin with music by Anahita Abbasi, Liza Lim, Cathy Milliken, Rebecca Saunders, and Alyssa Weinberg at ArtBase Brussels (Belgium)
⌈ 15.-17.10.2021 within Johannes Kreidler's work "20:21 Rhythms of History" at Donaueschinger Musiktage 2021 (Germany)
⌈ 02.10.2021. "until there is only space", with Victor Guaita; with works by Maria Sappho/Dejana Sekulic, David Bird, Dejana Sekulic, annd Johannes Kreidler. At SMOG (Brussels, Belgum)
⌈ 12.09.2021. solo violin, with works by Clara Iannotta, Liza Lim, Cathy Milliken, Rebecca Saunders, and Zach Seely at die naTo (Leipzig, Germany)
⌈ 10.09.2021. solo violin, with works by Clara Iannotta, Liza Lim, Cathy Milliken, Rebecca Saunders, and Zach Seely at Kraftwerk (Chemnitz, Germany)
⌈ 08.05.2021. solo performance with "Reading Poetry #3: Fragments" for solo performer with telegraph key (work by Dejana) and "Watchign Paint Dry" for solo performer (violin: Dejana) by Mariabrice ShappoCathrine, at Is the new punk exhibition-performance happening by Noisbringers at Analix Forever Gallery (Geneva, Switzerland)
⌈ 25.02.2020. "Front. In. Behind. Here. Now." from the "Temporality of the Impossible" series, featuring solo violin pieces by Buccino (premier), Cassidy, Gerasimenok, Hyytiäinen, Iannotta, and Saunders, at Phipps Hall (Huddersfield, UK)
⌈ 31. 10. 2019. Dillan, Nono, Tasca with OHHe Supercluster (with Irine Røsnes), St. Pauls Hall (Huddersfield, UK)
⌈ 03. 10. 2019. "What Hides in Grains of Sound" post residency performance at Q-O2 (Brussels) with Gilles Doneux
⌈ 03. 06. 2019. Concert-Cité with Meeri Pulakka. Music for solo violin+, solo voice and voice+violin by Miika Hyytiäinen and Jarkko Hartikainen. At la Cité internationale des arts (Paris, France)
⌈ 28. 04. 2019. Temporality of the Impossible: Time Traveling Startgazer, with music by John Cage, Haukur þór Harðarson, Clara Iannotta, Evan Johnson, Liza Lim, and Rebecca Saunders. At ArtBase (Brussels). More info on temporalityoftheimpossible.com
⌈ 14. 03. 2019. James Dillon's Traumwerk Book 1, OHHe Supercluster (with Irine Røsnes), St. Pauls Hall (Huddersfield, UK)
⌈ 07. 03. 2019. "multi-voiced poetics" at St. Paul's Hall (Huddersfield, UK), with solo violin pieces by Liza Lim, Lucio Tasca and Robert Wannamaker. More info on temporalityoftheimpossible.com
⌈ 12. 01. 2019. with LAPS and Christophe Guiraud at Espace Senghor (Brussels)
⌈ 01. 12. 2018. Berio + Dillon violin duets, with Irine Røsnes, Huddersfield (UK)
⌈ 01. 11. 2018. "How could you rise anew if you have not first become ashes?" (Temporality of the Impossible) at St. Paul's Hall, Huddersfield (UK). Solo violin performance with pieces by Cedillo, Harđarson, Iannotta and Kourliandski
⌈ 14. 10. 2018. MiniLAPS at ArtoNovo Festival, Brussels (Belgium)
⌈ 27. 07. 2018. "OboeViolin" studio concert, by Cathy Milliken + Graeme Jennings @ Darmstädter Ferienkurse 2018 (Germany) :: premier of Alberto Carretero's Ondeggiando for oboe and violin
⌈ 23. 07. 2018. Temporality of the Impossible: Violin+ @ Darmstädter Ferienkurse 2018 (Germany) :: featuring pieces for solo prepared violin and bow by Wojtek Blecharz, Clara Iannotta, Keeril Makan and Robert Wannamaker
⌈ 18. 07. 2018. Temporality of the Impossible: Sounding Gesticulation @ Darmstädter Ferienkurse 2018 (Germany) :: featuring pieces for solo violin by Aaron Cassidy, Samuel Cedillo and Dmitri Kourliandski
⌈ 06. 03. 2018. Festival Europart with LAPS, Brussels (Belgium)
⌈ 17. 02. 2018. with ensamble Apartment House (UK) @ Amsterdam (Netherlands)
⌈ 07. 01. 2018. "Temporality of the Impossible" Performance+Talk Session #5 @ ArtBase, Brussels (Belgium)
⌈ 07. 12. 2017. with LAPS @ Royal Academy of Belgium (Palais des Académies), Brussels (Belgium)
⌈ 08. 10. 2017. "Contrasts Festival", playing solo violin+electronics pieces by Taylor Brook and Solomiya Moroz @ Lviv (Ukraina)
⌈ 11. 06. 2017. "Temporality of the Impossible" Session #3: with music by Cage, Cassidy, Kourliandski, Lachenmann, Sciarrino, Seely... @ ArtBase, Brussels (Belgium)
⌈ 12. 05. 2017. "Within" by Tarek Atoui || KUNSTENFESTIVALDESARTS @ Dynastiepaleis/Palais de la Dynastie (Belgium)
⌈ 06. 05. 2017. Duo Momitani-Sekulic @ Trésor Saint-Lambert / Trésor de Liège (Belgium)
⌈ 30. 04. 2017. "Temporality of the Impossible" Session #2: by Bandoh, Cage, Cassidy, de Jaer, Lachenmann, Sciarrino... @ ArtBase, Brussels (Belgium)
⌈ 05. 03. 2017. "Temporality of the Impossible" Session #1: with music by Cage, Cassidy, Cedillo, de Jaer, Lachenmann, Sciarrino... @ ArtBase, Brussels (Belgium)
⌈ 24. 11. 2016. with LAPS @ ARSMusica in Espace Senghor, Brussels (Belgium)
⌈ 29. 09. 2016. @ Festival de Wallonie, Mons (Belgium), with LAPS
⌈ 13. 08. 2016. "Showcase Open Space" || solo violin, and violin+electronics works by Sciarrino, Gobert, Watts @ Internationale Ferienkurse fur Neue Musik Darmstadt (Germany)
⌈ 08. 08. 2016. "Open Space" || "Sensonarium" + "Nada:Act 1" presentation @ Internationale Ferienkurse fur Neue Musik Darmstadt (Germany)
⌈ 19. 03. 2016. @ SMOG - Studio Grez (Brussels), with LAPS
⌈ 18. 02. 2016. @ LOOP8 Festival, Espace Senghor (Brussels), with LAPS
⌈ 29.01. -07. 02. 2016. @ CTM Festival (Berlin), with solo project "Sensonarium"
⌈ 04. 12. 2015. @ SMOG - Projection Room (Brussels), solo
⌈ 25. 10. 2015. @ TRANSIT Festival, STUK (Leuven), with LAPS
⌈ 28. - 29. 08. 2015. @ La Cite Miroir, Liege, "Portraits (Hy)bridés" I&II, ARS MUSICA - Saison "OFF" , with LAPS
⌈ 28. 06. 2015. @Q-O2, Brussels, "Talking Space", work in progress - workshop performance
⌈ 15. 06. 2015. @ICTUS/Rosas Studio 5, Brussels, "microMACRO", soloviolin+electronic+sound installation,
⌈ 14. 06. 2015. @ "Atelier Courtois", Belgium, "Sound Stories: The Color of Sound", with Nao Momitani
⌈ 02.04.2015. @ Bijloke Campus, Gent, "Soundspotting", a multidisciplinary parcours featuring works by Applebaum, Helbich, Lanza, Nemtsov, Velickovic and sound installations (with GAME ensamble)
⌈ 26. 03. 2015. @ Mons (Belgium), SBAM - Biennale III with LAPS Ensemble || Premiere by Stephane ORLANDO abd Gilles GOBERT + works of Slinckx, Ledoux, Doneux
⌈ 24. 03. 2015. @ De Bijloke, Gent, Shelter (with Ictus, Spectra and GAME Ensembles)
⌈ 01.03. 2015. @ Studio 1.10, Amsterdam (Netherlands), duo with Jasna Velickovic, playing Velicon
⌈ 14.-15. 02. 2015. (Lille, France) / 01.-02.09. 11. 2014. (Brussels, Gent, Antwerp) / 17.-18. 10. 2015. (Lisbon, Portugal) "Ballet Mekanique" , with ICTUS+GAME
⌈ 08. 01. 2015. @ L’Académie royale de Belgique, Brussels - “Sound Stories: Sounding Belgium”, with Nao Momitani
⌈ 11. 12. 2014. @ Académie Royale des Beaux-Arts, Brussels, "PhD in One Night" - sound and space workshop
⌈ 26. 10. 2014. @ MiM, Brussels, "Sound Stories: l'act du mouvement”, with Nao Momitani
⌈ 10. 08. 2014. @ Orangerie, Darmstadt (Germany), "Composition Beyond Music" by and with Peter Ablinger and Dan Tramte
⌈ 13. 08. 2014. @ Open Space, Darmstadt (Germany) , "Talking Space"
⌈ 14.-15. 08. 2014. @ West Side Theatre, Darmstadt (Germany) , "Contemporary Opera" [with Ensemble Interface, Hans Thomalla, Patrick Hahn, Stefan Schreiber, Lydia Steier, Eliza Brown and Jason Thorpe Buchanan] @ West Side Theatre, Darmstadt (Germany)
⌈ 05. 06. 2014. @ Miry Hall, Gent , "microMACRO”, for solo violin
⌈ 01.- 05. 04. 2015. @ Théâtre La Balsamine, Brussels , with Besides - open general rehearsal for Baudouin de Jaer's new chamber opera "La forêt"
⌈ 19. 12. 2013. @ Saturnalia, Miry Hall, Gent, with LAPS
⌈ 28. 10. 2013. @ Orpheus Institut, Gent, Lachenmann and Gubaifulina
⌈ 13. 10. 2013. @ MiM, Brussels, Bach and Ysay solo violin sonatas
⌈ 13. 09. 2013. @ L'Académie royale de Belgique, Brussels, solo violin music by Ledoux
⌈ 18. 06. 2015. Recital "Sound of existence. Existence of sound", followed by presentation of the essey "Do you hear me? Handbook to contemporary notation, with Nao Momitani @ Koninklij Conservatorium, Brussels
⌈ 03. 02. (Flagey, Brussels) - 04. 04. (Bozar, Brussels) - 04. 05. 2013. (Maison de Poesie, Namur) with Trio Degradable
⌈ 15. 03. 2013. @ La Raffinerie, Brussels, with LAPS for ArsMusica
⌈ 20. 02. 2013. @ Koniklijk Conservatorium, Brussels, “COncErto...? Certo! - cOn soli pEr tutti (... perduti) with Heinz Holliger
⌈ 20. 03. 2012. @ l´Espace Senghor (Brussels), solo vilin perforamcne at "ArsMusica" International Contemporary Music Festival
⌈ 03. 03. 2012. @ Palais des Beaux-Arts, Henry Le Bœuf Hall, duo with harpist Ursual Ascic
⌈ 07. 06. 2011. duouble concertos with Valery Oistrakh at Constantinus Festival. Nis, Serbia
░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░
░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░
[ Johannes Kreidler: Selbstauslöser (2019) ]
Musiktheater for 2 Performers, Choir, Audio and Video
Premiered on 28.9.2019 in Volksbühne Berlin at BAM! Festival für aktuelles Musiktheater
Johannes Kreidler and Arno Lücker, Performance
Vocal Ensemble PHØNIX16, Ltg. Timo Kreuser
Concept, Composer, Direction: Johannes Kreidler
Dramaturgy: Arno Lücker
Stage Design: Dejana Sekulic
Video: Johannes Kreidler, Dejana Sekulic
Video direction: Peter Lell
Cameras: Uli Aumüller, Jakob Bauer, Adrian Schmidt
For full documentation, see kreidler-net.de.
░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░
[ NADA: Act 1 ]
⌈ collaboration with visual artist Jasmina Cibic
⌈ 2016
A building. An instrument...
Building an instrument...
A building as instrument...
Any, even slightly and let alone carefully thought about, space and its organisation determined by objects, walls, that make some sort of barriers to the air, makes for a space to become a space of resonance.. a resonance chamber. Within that space, we could certainly feel as, on a grander level, part of its structure, part of its sound structure, part of the sound and the sound wave.
And sometimes while within it, we are played by that space, by that architecture as instrument...
And sometimes... we can get inspired and make a building be an instrument...
The central element of project “NADA” is Vjenceslav Richter’s first, but unrealized design for the Yugoslav Pavilion at the 1958 EXPO in Brussels. Artist Jasmine Cibic appropriates and recreates the pavilion as a sculpture, which in turn functions as the skeleton of her new short film, around which the exhibition is centered. In “NADA: Act 1”, in collaboration with Dejana Sekulic, the sculpture of Richter’s pavilion is made into a music instrument, on which Dejana performs.
⌈ In-Depth description of the work.
⌈ Overview+Credits
░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░
[ The Gift: Act 1 ]
⌈ collaboration with visual artist Jasmina Cibic
⌈ 2019
For full documentation, see jasminacibic.org.
░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░
[ mets ta likette ]
custom instrument-performance-sound installation
⌈ Switzerland, 2018
⌈ collaboration
The wonder(s) of metal. And sound. The eternal exploratory playground and unlimited source of wonder.
In August 2018, Dejana was one of the mentors of the summer camp led by Julien Annoni (WeSpoke) and organised by Coordination Jeune Public. During this week of experimenting and exploratory music making, together with (and for) children participating in the camp, Dejana created one of the five cubes, “mets ta likette”, featured in the final spectacle (performance with children available here).
░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░
[ The Velicon ]
performance collaboration with Jasna Velickovic
The Velicon is a custom magnetic instrument designed and made by composer-performer Jasna Velickovic, that creats a special sonic world, with uncanny experimental and unconventional use of conventional. This visually appealing instrument, with simple geometric shapes of the magnets (cube, rod, ring, sphere…) in some ways reminds you on Lego, a simple toy which awakens creativity and invention - but now in sound building. The instrument offers a wide range of electroacoustic-like sonic possibilities produced without using any computer nor interface that solely depend on the physical movements of the performer and the way the instrument is being played. Each and every movement made with the coil produces a change, as if it were a bow in contact with a string on a violin. Recent performances of the duo (Jasna+Dejana) playing velicon include performances in Amsterdam, Gent and Brussels, during season 2014/2015.
░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░
[ writtings ]
⌈PhD Thesis, "Temporality of the Impossible: exploring the multifaceted process of preparation of complex pieces from the late 20th and 21st centuries", available via University of Huddersfield’s Pure Repository [July, 2023]
⌈ proceedings from Dejana's talk during the presentation on the conference "The (future) of artisctic education" hosted by UNESCO Chair for Cultural Policies and Management [May, 2021]
⌈ "Yay! Moooooore Violin Pieces!" - Introduction to Writing for the Violin || lecture/workshop at University of Huddersfield [March 2021, March-April 2022]
⌈ "Collaboration as Contingent on Material Encounters in Making Imitate Elegance Expertly: (Re)Thinking Violin Virtuosity", article Dejana co-authored with Linda Jankowska, Irine Røsnes, and Colin Frank [CeReNeM Journal No.7, 2020, UK]
⌈ "Do You Hear Me? - Handbook to Contemproary Violin Music and Notation", excerpt. [ pdf, 2012-2013 ]
⌈ Search and Research. Reflections on Art and Knowledge. [ pdf, 2013. - 2015. ]
⌈ Philosophy of Enthusiasm [ pdf, 2014. ]
⌈ "Bach and (Vs.) Ysaye. Timeless and Endless Journey. To Unknown.", excerpt. [ pdf, 2010. - 2011. ]
░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░
[ "Art is my..."]
art is knowledge. art is unique. art is every person... every life... every day. art is moving. growing through art. art is living. living is art.
• To view this work, read texts and meet all its (current+future) participants, please visit "Art is my..." site.
⌈ •About "Art is my..."
The only bounderies and limits we have are those that we impose to ourselves. When truth is the fact that one can do and reach beyond any limits. If one dares. It is said art should provoke. This work hopes that it does exactly that. It provokes every individual to find within themselves desire, strength, passion to go beyond their known bounderies, in no matter which part of work or life. Improve. Themselves, for themselves. Thus improving first the quality of own life and than society.
Art and education are the sparks that initiate us to think and strive, expand and set intellectual challenges. Spark that doesn’t allow us to be satisfied with shortcuts, mediocrity and trivial. Art is an individual and unique expression of inner thought and feeling. Each person possess within individuality, unique personality. That makes each life unique. Life, an unique piece of art. Life is art as art is life.
“Art is my…” looks on art as whole, its necessity for quality living and perceiving life, with all its individuality and originality, as a form of art. It aims to remind of these sparks that we should never forget about and that we should embrace, through artists – pictures, stories and performances of their artistry and their everydayness. Because, an artist is not necessarily just the person doing art. Just as well, even without being an artist, one becomes so in its own way and work – by making their everydayness, their life, their doing be inspired and lead by artistry and innovative thinking.
░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░
For more info, please visit: http://dejanasekulic.com. You can also consult the CV here
░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░
