Cracks of Closeness (Razpoke bližine) is a two-part new media project exploring the relationships between the individual and the world, experience and its expression, as well as closeness and alienation through poetry, voice, sound, and real-time audiovisual imagery.
The first performance, the train didn’t clatter, it hissed softly, speeding into the future (vlak ni klopotal, temveč je tiho sikal, brzeč v prihodnost), originates from the diptych scale (tehtnica) from the award-winning poetry collection Foreign Softness (Tuja mehkoba) by Natalija Milovanović, developing into a distinct text of its own. Using the motif of a freight train interwoven with voice, modular synthesis, and interactive visuals, it taps into the affective and generational experience of precarious labour, exhaustion, insecurity, and fragility. Fragments of tension between the expected, the desired, and the actual come together to form an audiovisual space of closeness and alienation. The work is co-created by Natalija Milovanović (voice), Miha Šajina (sound), and Urša Čuk – rastrLAB (visuals/video).
The second performance, Hypomnemata, is based on the poetry collection of the same name and unreleased material by Sergej Harlamov. It brings to the fore the materiality of language, the extra-literary conditions of creation, and the depletion of creative energy: the moment when expression becomes foreign to its own author, and language serves simultaneously as a medium of communication and its limit. Voice, sound, and imagery assemble and disassemble in real time within a multi-layered stream between the precision of technological structures and the unpredictability of noise. The work is co-created by Sergej Harlamov (voice), Vitja Balžalorsky (sound), and Ana Rome – patches.av (visuals/video).
Together, these new media pieces establish a dialogue between the social and emotional experience of fatigue and alienation on the one hand, and the processual and material dimension of language on the other. The audience enters a multisensory environment in which poetry appears not merely as text, but also as voice, signal, image, space, and event.
Natalija Milovanović (1995) is a poet and translator writing in Slovenian and Serbian. She is the author of the poetry collections Taken for Granted (Samoumevno) and Foreign Softness (Tuja mehkoba), published by the Centre for Slovenian Literature. She has received several awards and nominations for her work, including the Veronika Award for Foreign Softness. Her poetry is published in major literary journals and featured on the international poetry platform Versopolis.
Sergej Harlamov (1989) is a poet, sociologist, and comparative literature scholar. He is the author of the poetry collections The Eaters (Jedci), Decathlon of Mythologies (Mnogoboj mitologij), and Hypomnemata, which were nominated for major Slovenian literary awards. He received the University Prešeren Award for his work. In his works, he connects poetry, theory, and social analysis, with a focus on the materiality of language, creative processes, and alienation as a fundamental characteristic of being in the world.
Miha Šajina (1979), also known as Shekuza, is a producer, composer, DJ, and keyboardist. He has been active in the bands Intimn Frizurn, Moveknowledgement, Warhorse, and Ewok, and has been a member of the Zvviks collective since 2002, creating music for the Koyaa animated films. His artistic practice is based on exploring electronic sound, modular synthesis, and the connections between sound and moving image. Several audiovisual works he co-created have received awards. He also collaborates with the En-Knap Group.
Vitja Balžalorsky (1986) is a guitarist, multi-instrumentalist, composer, and music producer active in the fields of improvised music, electronics, and sonic experimentation. He collaborates with Slovenian and international music projects and is a member of the band Laibach. He is also the artistic director of the Ropotarnica concert series, dedicated to contemporary solo and experimental music practices.
Urša Čuk – rastrLAB (1986) is an audiovisual and intermedia artist. She creates audiovisual performances, interactive installations, and real-time audio-reactive visualisations. She collaborates with musicians, theatre, and dance artists, presenting her work at international festivals and events. She is a member of the Beam Team collective.
Ana Rome – patches.av (1984) is an audiovisual artist and researcher dividing her time between Ljubljana and Berlin. She creates visuals using analogue video synthesizers, with imagery responding live to sound and music. She is a guest artist at events and workshops at Berlin’s SchneidersLaden, a member of the Clockwork Voltage collective, and regularly performs at music events linking audio and video modular synthesis.
Organisation: KUD Channel Zero and Kino Šiška.
