180° Circle
Issue 2 I June 2022
Welcome to the pages of Circle Issue 2, dedicated to the 7th edition of 180° – Laboratory for innovative art Festival. In the summer of 2020 the world stood still and scared, eyes and minds were fixed on the pandemic situation. We started questioning the necessity of art and its meaning in these tough times. We reinvented digital communication and every aspect of human interaction gained new value.
180° Festival was more than needed at this moment. The digital edition once again gathered more than 20 international artists in separate collaborative laboratory processes. They were able to show the outcome of their collaboration as well as an interactive archive of their creative process (available at the website of the festival). As a participant, part of Team 1 together with Hugo Queiros and Paul Frick, I could only try to synthesize the main key points of our work knowing that our collaboration was so fruitful that I will never have the ability to transcribe it into words accurately. We had the time and space to properly dive into the theme of the festival “χώρος”(choros) as well as the main idea – innovation and focus on the creative process, not the outcome. It was a real discursive challenge for me that formed into a long term artistic path that I am following until this very day.
180° Festival is curated in such a way that it is always surprising and unpredictable both for the audience and the artists. In Circle, Issue 2 we introduce Lina Andonovska and Paul Frick who will tell us more about their unique personal experience during the digital edition 2020 and also about their future artistic endeavours.
Wishing you a happy reading,
Mihaela Dobreva,
Program Manager of 180° – Laboratory for Innovative Art
Meet
Lina Andonovska
Introduce yourself and your artistic path so far?
Hello! My name is Lina Andonovska. I was born in North Macedonia, grew up in Australia, live in Ireland and work in Europe, Australia and the USA. The essence of my artistic journey is collaboration; I love working with open-minded artists that are keen to explore the endless possibilities of sound creation. I have played with orchestras around the globe, both within the section and as a soloist. My main focus is on performing the music of today. I am deeply inspired by my mentors as well as my colleagues that all enrich my life. I also enjoy connecting with the community through sound and music, this is another key element of my practice. My path has taken me off the beaten track and has provided me with many unique and beautiful opportunities. I am grateful for the journey so far, and for the growth and development that transpire as a result.
You participated in the 7th digital edition of 180° and were not able to visit Sofia. What could you discover about Bulgaria (digital)?
I mentioned before that I am passionate about collaboration – this was a key element in the digital edition of 180° due to the geographic proximity of everyone involved. The 7th edition happened when I was participating in the International Ensemble Modern Academy (IEMA) program. Much of that year’s program of IEMA was carried out digitally or in hybrid. 180° Festival was perhaps the most adventurous fragment of the year as we were exploring the possibilities of digital collaboration starting from the ground up! I met (online) some amazing Bulgarian artists – in particular Rossi Grancharova who my team worked closely with. I learned that Bulgaria was full of artists who are open to experimentation and exploration – my kind of people! I can’t wait to meet or work with some of the artists that made the 180° Festival what it was…the possibilities are very exciting to be thinking about.
How was the artistic exchange in digital form? Did you manage to go out of your comfort zone?
I definitely ventured out of my comfort zone, I think everyone did to an extent that year. The lockdown was still a new and novel concept for us musicians, who are used to a life of travel and human contact. The process of creation being dependent on internet speed strength was challenging yet rewarding. The final work that my team molded for the 180° Festival submission was nothing that I would have ever anticipated creating or being a part of.
Share with us a situation from 180 Degrees that you will never forget?
Definitely meeting Bulgarian artists and the process of collaboration. I remember my team creating sonic/visual responses from all the different places we were at and throwing material over to Rossi. It was absolutely magical to receive her creations – she had made these very intimate animations that were brought to life with the sound samples that we were sending over. When I opened the file that she had sent over it was really moving! Another great aspect of this project was that I had the opportunity to work closely with the composer Lucia Kilger, I think one of the first times that I heard her own sound design work. My collaboration with Lucy continues to this day!
Describe 180° in 180 characters?(if it’s possible)
Experimentation, exploration, summer heat, new friendships, old friendships, collaboration, joy, Zoom, internet, whiteboard, possibilities, vision, auditory immersion, openness and art.
What is art for?
For me, it is about honesty and the fragility of human experience.
Tell us more about your next project/what’s coming up/what are you working on now?
I have joined the multiple Grammy Award-winning ensemble Eighth Blackbird as their flutist. There is a busy touring schedule with performances taking place along the US and around the globe. I also continue working on solo projects, commissioning work for myself or my duo of amplified bass flute and drum kit (SlapBang with Irish drummer Matthew Jacobson). I am looking forward to undertaking a residency at the Tyrone Guthrie Centre in Ireland where I will focus on composing. I am also currently rehearsing with Japanese/Irish pianist Izumi Kimura and French violinist Dominiquie Piferély and this evening, we are playing a concert of spontaneously composed chamber music at the National Concert Hall of Ireland.
Where and when can we see you?
About Lina: Curiosity, fearlessness and versatility carry Lina Andonovska’s artistry around the globe. Andonovska is a rare breed in the flute world; a name that you’ll discover on the pages of both Rolling Stone and the Australian Chamber Orchestra roster, she has not only cultivated partnerships with leading artists including Louis Andriessen, Donnacha Dennehy and Claire Chase, but also developed deep community ties from Timor-Leste to Tokyo’s Wonder Site. She has recently been appointed as flautist of the multiple Grammy Award-winning ensemble Eighth Blackbird. A sought-after collaborator, this season she appears as a guest musician with Ensemble Modern, Ensemble Recherche, and stargaze. Equally at ease with improvisation and the written page, she is critically acclaimed for her interpretation of new music with Rolling Stone Magazine, hailing her performance at Bang On A Can Summer Festival as “superbly played…”. With her performances noted as “re-defining the act of going solo” (The Age), Lina recently released her debut album with Diatribe Records, which was described as “brimming with energy and bold textures, though marked throughout by nuance. A name to watch out for” (All About Jazz).
Meet
Paul Frick
Introduce yourself and your artistic path so far?
I’m a composer from Berlin and I play piano and synthesizers with the bands Brandt Brauer Frick and Tangerine Dream.
What made you participate in the 2017, 2018 and 2020 editions of 180°?
In 2017 I participated because I found Alexandar Hadjiev’s ideas about group work exciting. The next times I did because each previous edition had brought me thrilling experiences. I liked the fruitful and stimulating way of getting to know new people through all-day artistic dialogue.
How did the digital collaboration with Hugo Queiros and Mihaela Dobreva in 2020 work for you? Would you do it again from a distance?
To me that collaboration was very surprising. It was in July 2020, the world or at least the concert world standing still, and I got to know them first online – visual artist Mihaela Dobreva and clarinetist Hugo Queirós, who both turned out to be very interesting the more regularly we talked and developed a pool of ideas, in order to create together something not yet defined. None of us had met before, and I unfortunately haven’t met Mihaela to this day – though just recently we missed each other in Berlin for a few days. I met Hugo briefly once in Frankfurt at the Ensemble Modern’s space. So it was an amazing experience to work for the first time with people I had never seen in the physical world and in fact that’s what made me want to work with them again in the real world (IRL). It did feel like getting to know them quite a bit, though sitting apart in Portugal, Bulgaria and Germany. And this whole video call thing was still rather new and of course enforced by the pandemic. Since then, it has become, at least for me, a normal routine. Still, I would prefer next time to work together in presence. Mainly because Hugo and Mihaela seemed great people. It would obviously be something different, hope it happens one day.
Share with us a 180° situation you’ll never forget?
‚Drawn‘, using multiple rooms of the Fabrica 126: Katya Tasheva singing Bulgarian folklore songs in one room, Alexander Hadjiev playing a Vivaldi bassoon concerto with strings in another, Laura Endres and I throwing synthetic or sampled sounds and pieces from yet another room, incorporating what was happening in some of the other rooms…involving dance, various types of visual art and more, more, more…
Describe 180° in 180 characters?(if it’s possible)
Creating a multi-faceted performance with a diverse group of artists, thrown together for a limited time, mutually inviting each other to bring in their different stories.
What is art for?
Still searching.
Tell us more about your next project/what’s coming up/what are you working on now?
With Brandt Brauer Frick we are currently wrapping up a new album that I’m really excited about. We also just started to play shows again and there’s going to be more. With Tangerine Dream we are also playing shows this year, promoting the new album ‚Raum‘.
Where and when can we see you?
At the moment mainly on the tour dates of Brandt Brauer Frick and Tangerine Dream.
About Paul: Born in West Berlin in 1979, Paul Frick took composition classes since the age of twelve with Il-Ryun Chung. From 2000 to 2008 he studied composition with Friedrich Goldmann at Universität der Künste Berlin. Together with Daniel Brandt and Jan Brauer he founded the group Brandt Brauer Frick, whose influential approach of instrumental dance music took them performing in over fifty countries to this day. In 2020 Frick also became a member of the group Tangerine Dream.
English 
Bulgarian