Two Roles: Ivana Kuljerić Bilić

Structure and Flow

 

What I find interesting in both roles is the process that includes, on the one hand, a variety of readings and perspectives, and, on the other hand, the universality of language and writing

 

At the 31st MBZ, you play a dual role, that of a performer and an author, in two different concerts. What are the differences from your perspective, what does each role bring and what do you focus on in each of those roles? Are some things the same in both roles?

My approach to music is certainly strongly influenced by my experience as a performer. Just as it is by my interest in word, languages, and literature, even in sign, meaning and script.

 

In each of these roles, I pay special attention to structure and flow. I like to look at the whole building, although I actually often admire some architrave or alloy. It could be said that writing compositions has always been connected with an idea that specific interpreters will breathe life into them. However, what I find interesting in both roles is the process that includes, on the one hand, a variety of readings and perspectives, and, on the other hand, the universality of language and writing that enables everyone to understand the written music even though, as I said, we often interpret it differently depending on our experiences. 

 

The Sound Simply Sounds

 

How did you create the program for the I.N.K. Experiment Duo concert? Was there anything in particular that you wanted to highlight, do the compositions on the program show a certain breadth or do they emphasize a certain distinctive character of you as performers, a duo?

In a broader sense, the program re-examines the role of space in creating and bringing music, and the journey from electronic sound to acoustic and back. 

It is possible that this is simply a matter of subconscious listening to some eternal planetary hum, to use a children’s phrase, with the idea that the sound does not actually “rumble” or “resound” but simply sounds. 

 

As a duo, we have been closely collaborating with composers and artists of different profiles from the very beginning, so this concert is a natural continuation of our collaboration with the unique Mijo Gladović. 

 

The breadth and complexity of percussion instruments or, even better, a unique imagery that confidently chatters through very diverse discourses, can certainly not come to life without jointly asking musical questions. 

 

The program includes older compositions written just for us, as well as a notification of some new composing–performing conversations.

 

Arabesques pour les ombres imMobiles – what can we expect here? The collaboration with Mijo Gladović sounds intriguing!

The collaboration with Mijo Gladović started several years ago at the Dubrovnik Summer Festival, where he, together with French colleagues, like some great Demiurge, turned the old Dubrovnik into a large instrument on which we played.

 

Our collaboration sublimates precisely the seeking and experiences I mentioned earlier, the relationship between music being performed in a space and the one that is “brought” into a space, but, most of all, the idea of expanding the language and medium of music.