Invalid Protocols, 2022
Invalid Protocols was created by Hrvoje Cokarić with curatorial contribution by Marija Stipišić Vuković for the garden of the Museum of Fine Arts in Split as part of the institution’s participation in the project GARDENING OF SOUL: IN FIVE CHAPTERS. This artist has long been
working on themes related to ecology, which he places in a broader socio-cultural context, with an emphasis on communication with space and community, as well as the involvement of new technologies in the creative process. Hrvoje Cokarić translates these principles into expressive strategies focused on acoustic ecology, focusing his work on plants and their ability to generate electrical signals depending on environmental stimuli, which he translates into music using special equipment, computers and synthesisers. The starting point for Invalid Protocols was the existing site-specific art installation Garden of Past and Future, which was initiated in 2015 at the Split Museum of Fine Arts by its then director Branko Franceschi in cooperation with the Permaculture Association of Dalmatia. Within the framework of this project, various Mediterranean plants (olive, strawberry, rosemary, agave, fig, laurel, oleander…) were planted in seventeen waste containers in the garden area of the museum building. The composition of this environmental model, based on a concept by Marko and Marika Pogačnik and Simona Čudovan, combines the form of a mandorla as a feminine principle and two arrows as a masculine symbol, representing the energetic seed, the germ of a new space and the future filling of this institution.
In this inspiring environment, Hrvoje Cokarić focused on the response of plants to poetry, carefully selecting specific poems to read in a concentrated way to trees, bushes, herbs… He thus constructed a new kind of soundscape that brings nature to life with literally organic variations of tones, rhythms and colours. The recording of these signals generated captivating sound compositions that can be described as ‘organic electronic music’, which achieved spontaneous communication and an unforced atmosphere, adding a whole new dimension to the museum garden. With this project, which allowed the audience to indirectly hear and perceive the subtle, otherwise imperceptible sounds of the plant world, Hrvoje Cokarić sought to deepen the connection with the natural world, to activate all levels of society and to appeal for a return to nature, a return to the roots. It is an artistically urgent call for sustainable living in harmony with the environment and all its components.
Hrvoje Cokarić’s ambient audiovisual installation Invalid Protocols, after its presentation at the Museum of Fine Arts in Split, is presented as part of the exhibition Gardening of Soul: Introduction in a performative authorial adaptation responding to the environment of the Ústí nad Labem House of Arts and the local community.
Hrvoje Cokarić and Marija Stipišić Vuković with contribution by Michal Koleček