Ivar Roban Križić at 180° - laboratory for innovative art in Sofia
Double bassist and jazz author Ivar Roban Križić, our first doctoral student in free improvisation at the Vienna University of Music is participating in the international festival 180° - laboratory for innovative art in Sofia, as the selected artist nominated by MBZ for support from the European Festivals Fund for Emerging Artists (EFFEA).
It is a festival that takes place in the week between July 21st and 28th this year, focused on innovative approaches in art that are achieved through free improvisation within interdisciplinary artistic teams from various parts of the world. Ivar Roban Križić will thus participate in the festival program as a member of the first team (Team 1) in which he will work with two other artists during three days in Sofia and finally perform at the concert on Monday, July 24th. In addition, he will lead an improvisation lab where he will present his projects and play music with a group of selected musicians at the very end of the festival, on July 28th, in parallel with the competition in short silent videos - Videomotion 2023.
In Sofia, Roban Križić will, among other things, present his project IRK Performing Reflection, which form part of his research at his doctoral studies in Vienna, which he presented at this year's Music Biennale in Zagreb, at the Močvara Club. The presentation of the project consisted of an "open rehearsal" for what was to follow on his further appearances at two partner festivals of new music, electronics and avant-garde jazz. One already happened; it was the Ring Ring festival last May in Belgrade, and the second is this month's mentioned 180° - laboratory for innovative art in Sofia. According to Križić himself, the Performing Reflection project involves the interaction of two disciplines: free improvisation and philosophy. Therefore, the ensemble that performs it consists of instrumental and electroacoustic improvisers and one improvisational philosopher. Through the collaboration of musical and philosophical improvisation, the project aims to explore different cognitive states of improvisers and create diverse performance frameworks that enable the coexistence of improvisational practices of music and thought, within the same context. The performance finally connects the philosophical viewpoints with the electroacoustic landscape, with the aim of ultimately involving the audience in the improvisation.
The festival in Sofia brings together European and international artists from the fields of contemporary classical music, electronic music, dance, visual art, experimental theatre and architecture, with the intention of encouraging discussion, creation of ideas and experimentation in the joint brainstorming of experts from different media. They are asked to look beyond their own social backgrounds, artistic and physical boundaries and offer the world new perspectives on the freedom of creation.