Irena Tomažin Zagoričnik: Moved by voice

2017

Irena Tomažin Zagoričnik: Mes(t)o glasu / Moved by voice foto/photo by: Nada Žgank

About

The performance Moved by Voice by Irena Tomažin Zagoričnik continues her exploration of the relation between the body, voice, and space. Tomažin and her collaborators undertake a research into the multiple sources of voice, its flesh, its materiality and metaphysical properties, and scrutinize its meaning and place in everyday life. This is an investigation of the processes that take place when the will of the cultivated flesh slackens and permits the presence of the voice, disburdened of the dichotomy between subject and object, culture and nature, the individual and the social, between the vulnerable body and the power of performance, to grow out of the cautious and delicate space/flesh.

How to let the voice come out as resuscitation and giving ear to the manifold sound space in and outside of the individual and collective bodies? The body that listens and resonates with the heard. Every so often, the voice becomes tangible and enters the body directly – the closeness of this place is strangely uncanny because we are oblivious and alienated from our innermost flesh.

Technical rider >>
Light plan >>
 

Collaborators

Concept: Irena Tomažin Zagoričnik
Co-created and performed by: Adriana Josipović, Nika Rozman, Irena Tomažin Zagoričnik, Nataša Živković
Dramaturgy: Barbara Korun
Sound space: Tomaž Grom
Light design: Urška Vohar
Costumes: Mateja Fajt
Design and photography: Hanna Juta Kozar / Tomaž Šantl
Photography: Nada Žgank
Executive producer: Sabina Potočki

Biographies of performers >>

Support

Production: EMANAT
Co-production: Sploh
Partner: Bunker/SMEEL
Media support: Radio Študent
Financial support: Ministrstvo za kulturo RS, Mestna občina Ljubljana

Reviews

With a concept that positions voice as the point of origin, Irena Tomažin Zagoričnik opens up the history of silence, while at the same time, intentionally or not, she also shows a certain reluctance to accept that the silence ever existed at all. This brilliantly developed composition for four female voices and bodies, absorbed in spasmatic becoming, connecting, and later orchestrated acting and dissolving only to begin again, incessantly raises the question: where is their drive coming from? (…) In this performance, it is them who are moved by voice and they show this without holding back, frontally, getting nearer and nearer, and when they come to the point of stopping, they take another leap. That’s why it is so important to know that this is not the voice of one (of them), but the voice of the four of them, which becomes a single voice, resonating in and alongside one another, possibly also triggering the voice near-by. Because of its sophisticated concept and a subtle, but unrelenting execution, the performance Moved by Voice will be remembered as one of the art highlights of the year in this city.
December 12, 2017; Odzven, online music magazine, SIGIC, “The Voice Was There First”, by Nina Dragičević


One of the greatest strengths of Irena Tomažin Zagoričnik is undoubtedly the fact that she entered the field of sound art, which she explores primarily through the medium of voice, through physical movement and contemporary dance. Looking at her music or dance projects, we can see that Tomažin actually never attempted to sever the connection between these two genres, because she clearly understands it as an organic one. Perhaps, Tomažin’s careful and extensive exploration of the continuity between the physical and the vocal emerges precisely out of this specific intersection, coupled with her interest in voice as the material basis for language, that is, as that bearer which turns up before any signification and which, even when articulated into a language, remains there as an indelible trace of flesh with a strong affective resonance. (…)
December 16, 2017; Dnevnik newspaper, “Voice So Thick One Could Cut It with a Knife”, by Pia Brezavšček


(…) The difference between individual unique voices is best seen when the four performers start jumping and making sounds. The exerted physical effort at least partially prevents the tendencies to modify or shape the voices coming out of them, however, their simultaneous movement through the space underlines how what we hear changes according to the performers’ position in space and their proximity to the spectator. (…) The last scene especially triggers an urge in the spectator to see what else (besides what’s already presented) can be developed with four “voice performers” on stage and what kind of a story can be told with their voices. (…) Despite certain structural flaws, the performance (unintentionally) opens up another question: what is or could be the role or the effect of voice (non-verbal) in the context of performance. Being that which arises out of the performer’s body and being as unique as her body, the voice presents a certain personal “vocal” language or a manner of wordless expression. Being more open to interpretation as the word, it can prove to be an excellent expressive means. The voice therefore doesn’t refer to a uniform, pre-codified way of understanding, but leaves us immense freedom in interpretation.
December 21, 2017; Koridor, review, Irena Tomažin Zagoričnik: Moved by Voice, by Maša Radi Buh

Previous events

  1. , Stara mestna elektrarna - Elektro Ljubljana, SI - ODPOVEDANO / CANCELED
  2. , Stara mestna elektrarna - Elektro Ljubljana, SI - odpovedano / cancelled
  3. , Pelzverkehr 2019, Klagenfurt, AT
  4. , Gibanica 2019, Stara mestna elektrarna - Elektro Ljubljana, SI
  5. , Ganz Novi festival, Zagreb, HR
  6. , Stara mestna elektrarna Elektro Ljubljana, SI
  7. , Stara mestna elektrarna Elektro Ljubljana, SI
  8. , Stara mestna elektrarna Elektro Ljubljana, SI
  9. , Stara mestna elektrarna Elektro Ljubljana, SI

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