Zagreb

{The French Pavillion, 25 Savska Road, Zagreb} for the Music Biennale Zagreb

The exhibition pavilion of the Republic of France was built for the fair Zagrebački zbor in the years 1936 and 1937 and is the first space within the series of works “{kA} : Oblivious to Gravity” that is not an abandoned or vacant building at present. But it has a very special and diverse history of use, vacancy, demolition, redesign and rededication that makes the place not only from an architectural point of view – unique. It is also paradigmatic for the gap between the architectural idea and vision for a space created and its actual acoustic properties that create a diametric other experience of the space. Built as a space for communication, speech and exhibition with glass, concrete and advanced materials to create transparency, width and a distinguished atmosphere the building has an unique reverberation that turns every subtle sound into a floating sonic mass, a wide spreading stream of reflections and layers of time.

Because of this unusual acoustic properties of the space that make it almost unsuitable for normal communication or concert situation that fits in any other concert hall, it should be thought of as a spatial instrument by its own means and used for spatial music, research and performance, composing for and with the building, using the very specific acoustics as a starting point for an artistic approach.

Composition: Gerriet K. Sharma
Documentation: Nico Bergmann
Curated by Davorka Begovic for the Music Biennale Zagreb

Premiere: April 18, 2015

 

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