to się nie uda – not asleep

Krakòw is a modest, but not to be underestimated node in the European cultural landscape for anything considering ‘sound.’ Marcin Barski and Konrad Gęca are two surveyors in this landscape who over the years helped to map the territory, talking about it, walking it, setting out lines, observing locations, offering travellers a meal and a bed. It is from this background that the following, Marcin’s, words arrive to introduce a mind-and-soul tickling idea:

“To się nie uda is a duo of Konrad Gęca and myself. We performed ‘not asleep’ at audio art festival 2021 at Galeria Nośna in Zabłocie, Kraków. To się nie uda is a sound art cabaret and/or a sound art reconstruction group, depending on a project. This one was a continuation of a piece we made for sound art forum in Wrocław.”

“Zabłocie is a former industrial area, currently gentified into rather posh residential district. Galeria Nośna is inside one of not many old buildings that still survived the gentrification.”

“We have invited people to come to the Nośna gallery in Zabłocie on a sunday afternoon. When there, people were told that this is not a concert and that they are supposed to walk around the district and phone us back with reports on what the see, hear or experience. We have suggested talking to local people and entering forbidden spaces. They followed our instructions. In the gallery room Konrad and myself were offering hot tea, a place to sit and some books to read. We had a number of conversations and were answering calls from people phone-walking in the area. The phone calls were played on the PA so anyone who stayed in the gallery could listen to the reports. In between phone calls we were playing sounds from old cassette tapes and some field recordings, too. After three hours we packed our staff and went to see a ‘real’ concert at the music academy.”

“The 30 minutes long mix is a collage of the phone calls, field recordings and sounds found on cassette tapes, there are also some conversations from the gallery room there.”