Conceived and created in the moment of the dissolution of shipyard working communities, and thus the disappearance of the possibility to construct complex vessels, Sicomat underlines the point of divergence of a completely new, contemporary and previously unknown sound dichotomy. The industrial silence, uncharacteristic of shipbuilding towns such as Pula, is in stark contrast to the decades of noise generated on the slipways, the significance of which was not only production-based but also culturally-symbolic. Hence, in the performance, silence, that valuable resource and commodity, is also articulated as “unhealthy”, a “cemetery-like silence”, a state that may be perceived as “horror”. The modern machine that lends the work its title, the Sicomat – whose optically controlled burners cut follow a design in cutting sheet metal installed in ships in a scale of 1:10 – could be understood as an opposition to such silenzio and a point of origin of industrial sound and noise.
The performance uses visual and sound excerpts from Branko Bauer’s film Building Berths of Pula (1970) and Aleksandar Aranđelović’s Ploviti se mora (1965.)
The project Sicomat is co-financed by the Kultura Nova Foundation, the Ministry of Culture and the City Office for Culture of the City of Zagreb.
Alen Sinkauz (HR)
Alen Sinkauz is an academically trained musicologist, composer and performer and winner of four Golden Arenas from the Pula Film Festival for his work on film music. He composes and shapes sound in stage music, dance and theatre performances as well as radiophonic, space-specific and multidisciplinary performance projects.
Nenad Sinkauz (HR)
Nenad Sinkauz works as a composer and performer in musical, theatrical, contemporary dance, film, and multimedia projects. He obtained his master's degree in ethnomusicology in Padua, and in his artistic work, he explores unconventional musical forms and expressions. He is also oriented towards exploring improvised music, and his musical roots stem from the underground punk and metal scene of the 1990s. Through performance and composition, which are closely connected in his work, he is interested in the dialogue between acoustic and electronic instruments, the hybridity of combining musical and theatrical principles in performance as a research orientation for new performance formats. Sinkauz has been actively performing in Croatia and abroad for two decades and composes music for film and theater. He has won four Golden Arenas at the Pula Film Festival for film music. In 2002, he founded the band East Rodeo, collaborating with a number of international jazz and rock musicians, blending avant-rock, live electronics, noise, experimental, and improvised music. Sinkauz is the author and performer in the acclaimed audiovisual project ...day of the year and the co-founder of the international festival of experimental and improvised music, Audioart in Pula. Currently, apart from guest appearances with the multidisciplinary project Aphasia by director Jelena Jureša, he is involved in the experimental band Roj Osa and the improvisational big band CRI Orchestra (both under his own label Kopaton Records), the multimedia project Sicomat, and the band Truth ≠ Tribe, which blends contemporary club music, African and Balkan rhythms with the energy of progressive rock.
Miodrag Gladović (HR)
Miodrag Gladović is an electrical engineer, musician, and multimedia artist. For many years he has been a prominent figure on the contemporary art scene, both as one half of the artistic duo Lightune.G with Bojan Gagić and through his independent practice. Combining engineering expertise with exceptional creativity, he consistently contributes to the innovation of the projects in which he participates.His work is shaped by a combination of punk sensibility and DIY ethics, more than three decades of musical experience across stylistically diverse bands and projects, the integration of new technologies into artistic practice, and a strong affinity for contemporary music and art. These qualities have established Gladović as one of the leading figures on the contemporary experimental music scene, as well as within broader innovative artistic practices.
Mario Kalogjera (HR)
Mario Kalogjera is a performance animation artist and image graphic designer. He has vast experience in the post-production phases working on a series of projects that include animated, experimental and short 3D stereoscopic films for Croatian Radiotelevision, Zagreb Film, Bonobo Studio and Kinorama.
Andrea Matošević (HR)
Andrea Matošević is a professor and researcher in the field of ethno-anthropology, cultural studies, history and philosophy at the Juraj Dobrila University in Pula. He is one of the co-founders of the Centre for Cultural and Historical Research of Socialism. He has published dozens of scientific research papers, five monographs and edited three collections of papers. His current research focus is the cinematic portrayal of industry with a special emphasis on the shipyard Uljanik in the second half of the 20th century.
