Improcon – Congress of Free Improvised Music, Art & Thoughts is scheduled this year between 10-14 August and – for the second time already – it will take place at the Veliki Tabor Castle in Desinć in Croatian region of Zagorje. Last year, in 2017, the appealing location of the medieval castle, on top of Hum Košnički, proved to be incredibly convenient, exciting and inspiring and will therefore again host more than 85 participants from 17 countries. The complete list of participants is available here: http://improcongress.org/festivals/improcon-2018/
Improcon is an international congress of workshops where the participating musicians, performers, dancers, poets, visual artists, theorists, producers and publishers connect, scheme new ideas and strategies for ad hoc performances and also long-term projects. Last year’s attendance resulted in more than 15 international ensembles that have cooperated – or are still cooperating – for short tours, residencies, collaborative recordings and festivals. It’s also worth noting that this year the Austrian division of Improcon took place in Graz, Austria, for the first time. Between 24-27 May 2018 numerous theoreticians, debaters and music improvisers examined the relation between music and language.
Participants at Improcon have music improvisation in common although they come from different music genres and other fields of contemporary art. There will be seven salons, the castle atrium and a chapel at their disposal, together with the possibility to explore locations in castle’s surroundings. The core intention of the congress is to create most of the contents on the spot and are then simultaneously presented to the visitors in the evening hours.
Two events are foreseen in advance this year: on Saturday, 11 August at 21.00 hrs a music documentary film Heartful of Music / Srečišče glasbe (Slovenia / 2017 / 53 min, English, Slovene) by Tea Grahek, filmmaker and film editor, will be premiered. Film is intimate and documentary-style story about Improcon 2017, improvised music and vision of free-thinking.
Cultural activist, radio host, publicist and concert organiser Miha Zadnikar will be questioning “genres”, what they actually do in music and other fields of contemporary art, and also where from – beside industry’s “demand” – does desire for limitations come from. The lecture entitled Improvisation in era of restoration is scheduled for Sunday, 12 August 2018 at 19.00 hrs.
Improcon is open for the public, organisers greet every visitor who is interested in happenings at Veliki Tabor Castle in the second week of August.
Improcon organisation and logistics: Nenad Borovčak (GOKUL, Zabok), Mitja Hlupić (Klub Metulj – Youth Association Društvo Bistrica ob Sotli), Nataša Serec and László Juhász (KUD Mreža, Ljubljana); partner support Markus Krispel (Šopron Shuffle – Trans European Music Meeting, Vienna) and Eva Ursprung (Schaumbad – Freies Atelierhaus, Graz).
Kindly supported by:
Veliki Tabor Castle, Košnički Hum 1, 49 216 Desinić, Croatia http://veliki-tabor.hr/si https://www.facebook.com/improcon/ http://improcongress.org