space®opera – How does it work?
Every day during this year’s Warsaw Autumn (and on the day after, too), usually at 12 noon (but twice at 1 p.m.), selected Warsaw monuments and sculptures will resound with their contemporary electronic “signature tunes”. To make things fair, each of them will “play” solo – different musical content, a different urban space, and a different manner of performance. On the last day, Sunday 29 September, all these compositions can be heard during one concert held at 4 p.m. at the Fryderyk Chopin University of Music. Next to the university building in Bohdan Wodiczko Square – a bit out of the way – stands the largely forgotten stone sculpture of “The Warsaw Autumn,” created by Karol Tchorek in 1975. How many persons or events have had monuments erected in their honour already in their lifetime?
space®opera is a multifaceted, multilayered project: a city space and an event to go to, a meta-installation, an application with elements of an urban play, and a pilot event inaugurating the microresidencies of Warsaw’s electronic/electroacoustic music composers at various educational and cultural institutions throughout the city. The project aims to bring together artists, children, teenagers, as well as (just as crucially to the whole process) teachers and educators. Some may see space®opera as a project that generates a network of mutual, live inspirations by recomposing ostensibly unchangeable elements of the creative process (such as a monument). Others may view it as simply an experiment, or a cycle of uniquely styled music lessons and workshops during which children and teenagers get the opportunity to observe a contemporary composer’s workshop and creative process, while composers can study the activity models of present-day youth. Young people can experiment with sound “from up close,” and conversely – artists can experiment with children’s reactions. Both parties thus get deeper into the matter, get to experience it truly and to know it really well. They learn and memorise in a natural way, not by heart and without the distance created by school-or-study context. They learn from practice, personally joining in the process of professional creative work and inspiration.
The 12 miniatures are fundamentally electronic pieces (with some minor deviations from purely electronic sound). They will be presented during the nine festival days and ten days of the Little Warsaw Autumn, together mapping out the space of a walk (hence the Polish spacer) dedicated to Warsaw’s monuments and sculptures. Approximately 30 such objects were initially shortlisted by the project’s curatorial team, whereas the final choices were made by teachers and children, who undertook to explore a selected sculpture or monument for 8–10 weeks. This study period included several lessons on cultural research, an introduction to the study of symbols and history, the monument’s meaning and message, as well as a search for associations and keywords.
Following this period, the composer would step in, and the young people – now already as knowledgeable “experts” on the given art object – would share their knowledge, impressions and associations with the music author. This initiated the process of exchange, mutual inspirations, experimentation, sound play, intertextual combinations and discoveries, followed by even more joint research, exercises, and games. After several such meetings, the composer got down to work alone with a laptop/mixer/ software, using the collected material and inspirations to create an approximately three-minute-long electronic miniature, which would finally be presented to the kids. Whoever still had time to spare would then brainstorm about the work’s title. This, then, is how the cycle of 12 miniatures was created, representing the sonic signatures of 12 Warsaw sculptures and monuments, most of which are examples of visual and urban-space art from the first two decades of our century. There are a few exceptions, though: the Warsaw mermaid of 1939, the “wandering” fountain of 1855 (in its fully reconstructed shape of 2006), and the Moniuszko monument of 1965.
How does space®opera work?
There are several ways to participate in this project:
Mode 1
Get a map (or printout) and download the free app. You needn’t go anywhere. Just follow with your eyes or trace your finger across the map and listen to the app. You will hear the sound of selected urban spaces (sculptures and monuments), such as the oldest of the Warsaw mermaids (the popular 1939 sculpture on the Vistula embankment) or the most recent Hatchling. Song Thrush installation by Joanna Rajkowska (2023).
Mode 2
You may choose your favourite Warsaw monument or sculpture (from among those selected for the project), visit that place on the day of the performance (see: the Little Warsaw Autumn programme) and listen to how it sounds in the space of its stationary presence – at 12 noon for most events, but at 1 p.m. for the Student (2003) and the Warsaw Pegasi (2008). This option comes with a bonus in that you will meet all the co-authors of the sculpture’s musical signature – both children and adults, and you will be able to watch the performance that will accompany the premiere of the miniature in actual social and urban space.
Mode 3
An ambitious option for enthusiasts of urban strolls and trips: Attend each event on every festival day (as indicated in the programme of the 14th Little Warsaw Autumn), listen to the electronic miniconcert and see the miniperformance presented in the space of the given monument or sculpture.
Mode 4
A powerful and compact option: come to the final event summing up the meta-installation project, held on 29 September at 4 p.m. at the Fryderyk Chopin University of Music, where all the miniatures will be presented along with the sculptures or monuments they correspond to, as part of one electronic music concert taking you for an electronic-musical walk in artistic and urban space.
There are most surely other ways of participating in this multilayered project as well. Choose one that fits you best – it’s part of the fun.
Anna Kierkosz
On the project name
space®opera is a portmanteau work that combines the meanings of the Polish word spacer (a leisurely walk or stroll, often to some specific place or event), English space, and opera – as a large-scale (co-)operation and as the plural of many small opuses. The project concerns space in its multiple senses: urban/physical, musical, virtual, electronic, inspirational, imaginary, but also the space of the project, made up of many layers and opportunities for artistic activity that it offers: the space of many minds and their interactions that together generate a quite new creative space. It is the space of limitless opportunities for outreach, education, intergenerational communication, and art. Finally, space®opera also retains the romantic taste of epic adventure known from the cinematic-literary genre (space opera) and of the various bold electronic music genres from the 1960s and 70s that are designated with the word “space” (rock, metal, etc.).