In June this year, the UK-based Audiobulb label will release a new album, Bodyfulness by Jacek Doroszenko, known for his Soundreaming project, solo albums on the French Eilean label and the American Time Released Sound, and the Mammoth Ulthana duo. This time the musician invited Ewa Doroszenko, an intermedia artist, with whom they work together in the field of contemporary art, travel as part of Artist-in-Residence, and create joint exhibitions.
Bodyfulness is not only an album of musical compositions but also a visual project in which the artists try to capture the atmosphere of the physical and virtual presence. In the Bodyfulness project, Ewa Doroszenko prepared a series of sensual digital photographs and took part in the recording of selected pieces. The artists say this about their project:
We are a creative couple. In our symbiotic everyday reality, art blends with life. We operate in the era of digital dependencies. Contemporary technologies increasingly affect our lives and work, and the dynamics of their development make them more and more integrated with reality. Our situation seems to be dominated by virtual images and content – digital immersion is an inseparable element of every day we spend together. There is no longer a dichotomy between the virtual and real worlds, we exist in a new, hybrid space in which boundaries extend beyond the tangible experience. Fascinated by these phenomena, in the Bodyfulness project we try to capture the coexistence of physical and virtual life, talk about the intimate experience of the body online and offline, to show a subjective audiovisual study of the way modern technology and culture modify our intimate relationships.
In the Bodyfulness project, the artists were also inspired by currently popular internet practices: online meditations on YouTube, recordings of ASMR sessions, naive self-improvement manuals, smartphone applications that reduce stress and help you fall asleep. Following the current growing interest in rituals allowing to reach a state of deeper consciousness (or at least simulate it), the Doroszenko duo added a discreet musical commentary on virtualization and digitalization of reality.
Bodyfulness consists of a series of digital photographs and musical compositions that reveal the potentials and paradoxes of digital intimacy. The works are accompanied by a video that refers to popular online guided meditations, listening to which helps to relax or concentrate. The sound compositions are partly based on recordings of daily beauty and relaxation rituals, evening conversations, meetings, close-ups, including virtual ones – full of digital blurs, distortions, and imperfections. Building on the performativity of these activities, the artists experimented with the post-organic body to present their own version of sonic corporeality.
The instrumentation used in the recordings goes beyond classical electronic sound – Jacek Doroszenko: electronics, prepared piano, field recordings, recordings of sound installations, analogue synthesizers, bells, string instruments; Ewa Doroszenko: skin and body parts, contact microphones, synthetic granules. This specific mixture made it possible to perform compositions of an intimate and saturated character. Closely recorded musical activities and those that by their repetition imitate music or bypass this category direct the Bodyfulness project towards sound art.
The release of the album will be preceded by two singles, which will contain selected compositions from the album and bonus tracks available only on the singles.
Find out more about the artists and their latest projects at:
Have you ever wonder how sound affects your perception of a certain place, your visual imagination, or even your memories? Two artists, Jacek and Ewa Doroszenko, have created „Soundreaming”, an audio-visual project considering these phenomena. They released an album of music from the series, containing immersive, well-thought-out, dreamy compositions based on field recordings from the time of their artistic residency at Fundació AAVC Hangar in Barcelona.
Ewa Doroszenko is a Polish intermedia artist living in Warsaw. In 2012 she received a Doctor of Fine Arts degree at the Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń. Her artistic practice is characterised by unconventional digital manipulation combined with traditional media, including painting and photography. The artist is also involved in projects exploring sound phenomena.Ewa Doroszenko was a finalist of the Noorderlicht International Photo Festival (2021), Kranj Foto Fest (2021), Athens Digital Arts Festival (2020), Generate! Festival for Electronic Arts (2019), and FILE Electronic Language International Festival in São Paulo (2015). Doroszenko was also the recipient of a 2019 scholarship from the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage of the Republic of Poland and the recipient of several international residency programmes, including Re_Act Contemporary Art Laboratory (Azores, PT), Atelierhaus Salzamt (Linz, AT), The Island – Resignified (Lefkada, GR), Kunstnarhuset Messen (Ålvik, NO), Petrohradská kolektiv (Prague, CZ), Klaipeda Culture Communication Center (LT) and AAVC Hangar (Barcelona, ES). Her works have been shown widely in solo and group exhibitions, among others, at the Center of Contemporary Art in Toruń, Vilnius Photography Gallery, MAH – Museum of Angra do Heroismo, Propaganda Gallery in Warsaw, Fait Gallery in Brno, Kasia Michalski Gallery in Warsaw, Exgirlfriend Gallery in Berlin, Wroclaw Contemporary Museum.
Jacek Doroszenko is a Polish audio-visual artist living in Warsaw. The core of his activity is treating sound phenomena as legitimate material in the field of visual art and emphasizing the value of listening as a practice. The artist uses a wide range of processes, including music, sound installations, field recordings, video, and musical score concepts, depending on the context. The artist released solo music albums: Bodyfulness, Audiobulb Records UK (2022), Infinite Values, Time Released Sound, USA (2020), Wide Grey, Eilean Records FR (2017), Soundreaming, Audiobulb Records UK (2017), Useful Remnants, self-release PL (2016), and as Mammoth Ulthana: Āmurs, MCK PL (2018), Particular Factors, Zoharum PL (2016), Mammoth Ulthana, Zoharum PL (2013). The artist received his MFA degree at the Academy of Fine Arts in Krakow PL. He is a beneficiary of many Artist-in-Residence programs, including Petrohradska Kolektiv in Prague (2018), Atelierhaus Salzamt in Linz (2016), The Island-resignified in Lefkada (2015), Kunstnarhuset Messen in Ålvik (2015), AAVC Hangar in Barcelona (2014). He presented his works in numerous venues, among others: In-sonora festival in Madrid, Casoria Contemporary Art Museum in Napoli, Historic Centre of Athens, Goldcorp Centre for the Arts in Vancouver, Fait Gallery in Brno, Exgirlfriend Gallery in Berlin, Festival Nomade in Montréal, FIESP Cultural Center in Sao Paulo, Cidade das Artes in Rio de Janeiro.
Below are selected graphic works by Ewa Doroszenko from the Bodyfulness series.
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Ewa Doroszenko, Bodyfulness -
Ewa Doroszenko, Bodyfulness -
Ewa Doroszenko, Bodyfulness -
Ewa Doroszenko, Bodyfulness -
Ewa Doroszenko: Bodyfulness
Āmurs is the title of a third studio album recorded by Jacek Doroszenko and Rafał Kołacki – the artistic duo known as Mammoth Ulthana. The release is a part of the larger audiovisual project comprising three elements in total: sound installations presented in the form of an art exhibit, audiovisual performance and music album. The entire project, inspired by the industrial landscape of Bydgoszcz in northern Poland, premiered during the grand finale of this year’s Tehofest Festival.
