Kozmic Sounds
Magdaléna Manderlová (& Michal Kindernay)
Thursday 23 November — Presentations
14.30 — 15.00
I presented our artistic research project investigating the Opava river and the wetland-bird reserve Kozmické louky (Kozmic meadows). The project was first commissioned and curated by Bludný kámen in 2021 and has had many outcomes since; two exhibitions (Galerie Cella 2021, 22), a published book (2022), an online sound map Zvuky Opavy(2022), a 22-hour artistic radio commission adioart.zone, and an extensive one-day seminar, Sound Sensitivity in the Field (2022).
The project continues with a yearly festival in the meadows, with local and international artists and local scientists participating. For this year’s edition, we have invited two members of CENSE, Peter Cusack and Carina Pesch, together with local experimental musicians. We started with an internal symposium at the first weekend of May 2023, where we also broadcasted the dawn chorus through the Reveil network. The one-day festival took place on 19.8.2023. The goal is to continue with small colloquium and site-specific interventions, with more participants from the CENSE network.
Our working method combines artistic field investigations (field research, field recording, and spending time/engaging with the landscape) with scientific inputs and direct contact with the local audience. This kind of investigation pays attention to, senses and communicates with a space and all the beings there - human and nonhuman. We cultivate a sensitive educational means towards the local audience.
About the location:
The Opava river, or Opavice in the common tongue, springs in Jeseníky mountains and confluences with the Odra river in Ostrava. Opavice has had a cultural-historical significance throughout history; many stretches have been national borders. The river has been regulated, and two gravel mines operated in the river’s basin (now recreational lakes). The wetland bird reservoir Kozmic meadows lies in the river’s basin. Kozmic meadows are floodplain meadows which were formerly intended for gravel mining and experienced difficult times of water drainage, aggressive terrain destructions, and extraction of resources. These activities disrupted the natural balance and caused the loss of biodiversity. Kozmic meadows are now, thanks to the long-term commitment and dedicated work and care of the local community and the company Semix, full of life and accommodating hundreds of species of birds and plants, amphibians, Exmoor ponies, and an ornithological observation station.
Bio
Magdaléna Manderlová (1991) is an artist, musician and composer. In recent years, she abandoned the visual media of painting and drawing, and works mainly with sound. In her artistic practice, Magdaléna works with listening as a tool to engage with the world. Through sound and listening, she pays attention to and communicates with a specific environment, and all the living creatures inhabiting these environments. Her works often take the form of site-specific sound installations, performances, artist books and texts, sonic essays and compositions. She graduated in the master's program in the painting department at the Faculty of Arts of the University of Ostrava, and in the international master's program at Trondheim Academy of Fine Art, NTNU. In the past she performed as a singer-songwriter moin moin and was part of the Czech independent music scene. Nowadays, she performs in the context of experimental music. Magdalena lives and works in Trondheim, Norway.
cense.earth/magdalena-manderlova
Michal Kindernay (1978) is an intermedia artist, curator and performer, working and living in Prague. His audio-visual installations interconnect visual art, cinema, technology and science, reflecting ecological issues through various technological approaches in relation to nature environment. His works include audiovisual performances, interactive installations or experimental documentary or music compositions. He is one of the founders of non profit organization yo-yo and the initiator or RurArtMap project. He was one of the curators of Školská28 gallery in Prague. He works for the Agosto Foundation, teaches in Prague College and was teaching in Centre of Audiovisual Studies in Film and TV School of Academy of Performing Arts. As an organizer or artist he was involved in many international projects and participated in all CENSE conferences since 2018.
