Dear Kees and the Konrad Boehmer Foundation,

We thank you for your and foundation’s support of our work.

We used the funds for the continuation of our research, the presentation of the new artworks, and also for buying a technology that helped us to work more efficiently in the field.

Here you find a summary of the works we presented. During each of the public presentations and within the artworks themselves, it was always stated, that we could continue to work thanks to your support.

Z DRUHOHO BOKU (FROM THE OTHER SIDE)

As we are very interested in the different ways of sharing and collaborating with the locals in the Carpathian Mountains, we prepared an audiovisual performance combining the images and sounds we collected, together with live performances of the musicians and singers we invited to come to Slovakia. We spent weeks rehearsing and it was inspiring and enriching to work together on our common output. The performance happened in May 2024 in Slovakia, in Lucia's hometown, Humenné.

DŽYNA

Audiovisual installation, made for BUČENÍ 2024 festival in Lubná, Czech Republic

Džyna / Gina, a term derived from the word "ginetika" or "genetics". It is believed to be a natural symbiosis of a gift from God, ancestors, and persistent practice that every musician must possess.

"During the last three years, I have conducted time-lapse research in the borderlands of Slovakia and Hungary, close to my hometown, and in the Ukrainian and Romanian Carpathian Mountains with the ethnographer Lucia Nimcová.

I started asking old village musicians to teach me how to play the violin despite having no prior experience with the instrument. During this practice, I prepared an archive of field recordings made from the perspective of a sound artist, becoming a member of amateur village bands. I sought the same type of old musicians and singers despite their diverse cultural backgrounds when working in the field. They were not considered "the best and representative" in the area; they learned to play by listening to their environment and are "amateur professionals" who still actively play at local celebrations.

I conducted dozens of "self-organized masterclasses" - conversations about instruments, a relationship of music to magic, sound environments of the locations where music was played, local acoustic memory... Their personal experiences provided insight into diverse cultural and social contexts.  

While collaborating with the participants, I document equally their playing and listening approaches. I recorded an audio journal of listening to the musicians, instruments, tunings, and the site."

SISTERS

Audiovisual installation made for the exhibition “HANA” in Bratislava City Museum (22.11.2024 - 31.08.2025)

This audiovisual installation explores survival through the lens of personal and collective narratives. Over four years in the making, the piece presents a time-lapse journey of female characters, including three sisters—Vasylina, Jelena, and Kateryna—whose stories are interwoven with the melodies and sounds that define their lives. Set to a backdrop of seasonal changes and political turmoil, the installation juxtaposes image and sound, creating a dialogue that reflects the complexities of resilience and healing. Viewers are invited to engage with the installation, mirroring the artists' own experience of documenting these intimate stories. This video poem captures the timeless essence of betrayal, love, and the transformative power of song, showcasing how, despite trauma, women can find peace within themselves.

Digital album: DANIOVCI

Digital release of our friends, gipsy street musicians from Slovakia with a unique approach to the traditional repertoire and site.

"All the tunes we play are under a minute long. If you want money, you gotta convince the people who walk by that you're good 'cause they won't listen any longer."

Gypsy musicians duo Daniovci. Besides playing at local village weddings for decades, they busk on the streets for tourists in eastern Slovakia. How do these distant situations change their musical language?

On the sound recording, we hear a selection of their all-day performance with several geographical imprints. Their border-zone repertoire includes well-known songs of Slovaks, Gypsies, Hungarians, Rusyns, and Romanians in special abridged versions rearranged for the context of a busy town square.

FEDIR: The story of the seven-string violin.

Our dear friend Fedir had fulfilled his dream, he finished the instrument and a month ago after that he died. Luckily, we managed to smuggle it to Belgium, and we are currently working on an exhibition with the image and audio archives and the exposition of the finished violin.

We would be happy to make a presentation or exhibition also for the Sonology department.

PLANNED RELEASE