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, where her compositional practice has already explored phenomena connected to a socio-political context shaped by post-war trauma, right-wing politics, gender-based violence and social passivity, as well as the metaphorical “culture of silence” surrounding difficult or uncomfortable subjects.

The Culture of Silence?

What does silence communicate when there is no direct statement? Silence does not necessarily mean the absence of a voice. It can be imposed, chosen, inherited, or used as a way of communicating what cannot or does not want to be said directly. In Skljarov’s work, silence, absurdity and humour often become ways of approaching subjects that resist direct expression, allowing political and social meanings to remain partly hidden, distorted or ambiguous.

The Blue Giraffe

The project expands the existing composition The Blue Giraffe for five voices, video and electronics (written in 2023 for Neue Vocalsolisten Stuttgart), placed into a dystopian narrative populated by absurd characters, invented rituals, dark humour, and an imaginary sign language functioning as a semiotic system. The whole story Skljarov is currently developing into a novel set in the same dystopian city, addressing subjects of censorship, racism, ecology, silence, and political resistance through metaphor.

Ensembles and Artistic Experiments

The dystopian narrative will provide a basis for a series of new compositions and guided improvisations for solo and chamber groups of players and singers. Open compositional material, improvisation and performer interpretation will be explored through experimental workshops, rehearsals and concerts.

The secured collaborations are currently with Neue Vocalsolisten Stuttgart (five voices) and Serious Ensemble Zagreb (approximately 15 instrumentalists). During the research period, the project will also involve Norwegian instrumentalists and singers based in Oslo. These different artistic and cultural contexts will become an important part of the research, exploring how interpretation and meaning may shift between performers and contexts.

Audiovisual Outcome

The research will lead towards a hybrid film/opera/audio-visual work. Rather than simply documenting the research that precedes it, the audiovisual work will incorporate the research process itself: fragments of experiments, different interpretations, visual material and transformations emerging through the encounters with performers. Its final form is therefore left open to what the research itself may reveal.