This international project is jointly created by a network of ten cultural institutions from all of Europe, actively involved in contemporary artistic production and fostering transnational cultural ties, at the same time responding to present-day social challenges.

Croatian participation in the Re-Imagine Europe program began during the latest edition of Showroom of Contemporary Sound international festival, held at the Student Centre in Zagreb. Due to subsequent social and political developments, the program became a project of KONTEJNER ǀ bureau of contemporary art praxis, expanding on the organization’s previous engagement with the field of contemporary sound art.

As part of this year’s Touch Me festival, Re-Imagine Europe brings an exciting program of sound performances, showcasing the latest tendencies and cutting-edge sound artists active in the field of experimental music and adjacent fields. The sonic explorations, spatial-sound compositions, sound interventions and multi-channel electronic arrangements presented here have been commissioned and produced precisely through the Re-Imagine Europe network, premiering at this year’s Sonic Acts in Amsterdam, mostly in collaboration with INA GRM. Due to epidemiological measures, all the Zagreb performances will be held outdoors – at the parking area in front of Nikola Tesla Technical Museum HALA V. Open space and its acoustic characteristics will be an additional challenge and inspiration to the sound artists.

A multichannel electronic set by Miodrag Gladović and Gideon Kiers will introduce us to the experimental sound programme. These versatile musicians, composers and multimedia artists have become top names of today’s sound and audiovisual art due to work in the contemporary experimental music scene and other innovative art projects. In addition to a number of collaborations, both are members of the audiovisual group Inconsolable Ghost. Their performance at the Touch Me festival is also their first electronic duet.

Hugo Esquinca’s sound intervention On „A Psychedelic Becoming” premiered at this year’s Sonic Acts, however, the work is based on the continuous process of creation, change and new intervention, therefore, the performance in Zagreb is the first intervention in an open-air setting. Young artist Kali Malone, lauded as the master of minimalist and meditative sound, whose 2019 album The Sacrificial Code garnered high praise on the international experimental music scene, will also make her first appearance in Croatia. Whether she is playing the organ or making purely electronic music, Malone’s simplicity is both complex and mesmerizing, provoking intense emotional reactions. Her Zagreb performance will feature a multichannel electronic setup.

After an evening of uncompromising and intense multichannel electronic music, renowned experimental cellist Anthea Caddy will perform two shorter pieces presenting her spatial-sound exploration, realized in collaboration with electroacoustics engineer and instrument designer Miodrag Gladović. His custom-built parabolic speakers will be the hardware by which the amplified cello signal is projected as a long-distance beam of sound.

The end of this exceptional sonic journey is reserved for the world premiere of media and performance artist and musician Marco Donnarumma’s latest work. The piece, which has been commissioned and produced by KONTEJNER, is part of the Humane Methods cycle, created by artistic group Fronte Vacuo. It also marks the continuation of Donnarumma’s work on his XTH Sense – a biophysical musical instrument that produces sound by the movements of his body, but it is also a fully-fledged musical and dance performance.