Helena Skljarov: Composing the Unspeakable

Field of study: Artistic Research

This Artistic research project investigates how absurdity, humour, video, hidden messages and similar indirect forms can function as compositional strategies for political and social engagement in contemporary music, but as well in art in general. The project considers indirect expression not as avoidance, but as an ethical and aesthetic necessity when direct speech is constrained. The research is rooted in Skljarov's personal and artistic background in Croatia, a socio-political context shaped by post-war trauma, right-wing politics, gender-based violence, and social passivity, where ‘‘the culture of silence’’ in a metaphoric way often replaces open confrontation in general.

The project expands the existing composition The Blue Giraffe for five voices, video and electronics (written in 2023) placed into a dystopian narrative populated by absurd characters, invented rituals, humour, and an imaginary sign language functioning as a semiotic system of silence and coded meaning. The whole story Skljarov is currently developing into a novel with sequence of 12 chapters set in the same dystopian city, addressing subjects of censorship, racism, ecology, silence, and political resistance through the metaphor. The idea is to develop the same dystopian narrative and write a series of new compositions for solo to chamber group of players and singers with different ages, artistic backgrounds, nationalities, and political contexts, examining how meaning and interpretation may shift in different approaches. Those works would be recorded on rehearsals and performed at ‘‘intermediate concerts’’ and would function as kind of artistic laboratories, incorporating performer collaboration, improvisation, reaction, interpretation, and approach as a research method. For now, the secured collaboration is made with Neue Vocalsolisten Stuttgart (based in Germany, five voices) and Serious Ensemble Zagreb (based in Croatia, approx. 15 instrumentalists), and the idea is to also meet and include Norwegian instrumentalists/singers based in Oslo during the research period.

Outcome

The final outcome is a hybrid film/opera/audio-visual artwork of approximately 75 minutes duration that combines contemporary composition, vocal performance, chamber music, visual storytelling, and discreet narration. The idea is to choose, develop compositions created during the research and presented at “intermediate concerts’’, and connect them into a story with clear narrative. This high-quality audiovisual recording, as some kind of “movie-thesis”, would operate as the primary artistic argument and outcome of the research. I will personally create the visual layer of the project and developed it as an integral compositional element, using performative and process-based video practices such as live painting, visual manipulation, and other filmed actions.

Besides the film/opera/audio-visual artwork, the project also keeps open the possibility of a concert version of the work. The relationship between private audiovisual reception (in the case of a film) and shared live performance (in a case of a concert) is understood as part of the research, opening questions about differences between individual and collective experience of listening.