Research Catalogue

Research Portal of Janacek Academy of Performing Arts in Brno

The exhibition Estranhamento (Strangeness) aims to share the visual art work developed by researcher Catarina Casais, associated with her doctoral project Políticas de Estranhamento: Práticas de resistência e revigoração docente (Policies of Strangeness: Practices of resistance and teaching reinvigoration). These drawings, linocuts and embroideries seek connections between her artistic practice and research work, promoting possibilities for reflection on the teaching profession in the visual arts and the teaching demonstrations that took place between 2020 and 2024. The challenge in developing these works is to think, based on the materiality of the teaching demonstrations, about possible languages through the techniques and materials used. These languages reflect a desire to think about the daily reality of visual arts teachers and the moments of protest related to their professional practice. Linocut, embroidery and drawing become ways of addressing the issue of visual arts teaching and its politicisation within the school environment, inviting everyone to visit the thinking laboratory that has been developed over the last academic year at Atelier Sem Forma.

This research explores creation as a form of violence that operates through interruption, erasure, and bodily pressure rather than through visible conflict or aggression. Through a conference-performance, writing is treated as an unstable action: it begins, stops, fails, and is physically destroyed without revealing its content. The work focuses on moments where creation resists completion, and where decisions to stop, delete, or abandon become central gestures. By placing the performer behind the audience and withholding textual legibility, the research shifts attention from meaning to process, from narrative to tension. Creation is approached not as expression or inspiration, but as a concrete and irreversible experience that acts upon the body and its limits.

The Opener - sharing the performer’s process was a one-year artistic research pilot project (March 2024 - March 2025) funded by strategic funds at the Faculty of Fine Arts, Music and Design, University of Bergen. It was part of the Grieg Academy Research Group for Performance and Interpretation (GAFFI) together with external members from The Academy of Performing Arts in Bratislava. The project consisted of 8 sub-projects and educational activities, involving different instruments: piano solo, violin, duos with voice and piano, clarinet, accordion and guitar. The term opener can in this project proposal symbolize a three-fold meaning connected to the music performance field. This project seeks to - see the performer as an opener of musical meaning in a performance (interpretation of musical intentions in scores and improvisation) - challenge ourselves as performers as openers that share his/her artistic work (getting insight into the creative process and methods) - finding openers as tools to reveal and show the creative process of performers (ways of showing the artistic process)

“Objects under investigation” is a collection of separately conceived works addressing the problem of the text as medium and, more broadly, mediality in art from an experimental perspective. The term object[s] functions as a neuter reference to the text both as a phenomenon and as a product in itself. It evokes the idea of something that can be physically handled, without implying a necessarily physical object.

Abstract This study investigates the role of music and sound in shaping a sense of identity among second-generation immigrants in Finland, with a particular focus on Finnish Kosovar experiences. As Finland moves from a historically homogeneous society toward a more multicultural landscape, understanding how musical engagement influences identity formation becomes increasingly significant. Through autoethnographic reflection and artistic practice, this research explores how listening, performing, and creating music mediate the negotiation of cultural heritage, integration, and hybrid identities among individuals navigating multiple cultural worlds. Central to this exploration is the master concert Safe Ocean, which serves as both a personal and academic articulation of the study’s core themes. The concert integrates multilingual expression, traditional Albanian and Turkish musical materials, and hybrid compositional methods that also incorporate Nordic musical elements such as modal melodies, open-voiced harmonies, and timbral aesthetics characteristic of the region’s contemporary folk and art music practices. By combining solo, small-group, and full-ensemble arrangements, the project presents both intimate and collective expressions, engaging instruments and musical influences from Kosovar Albanian, Turkish, Nordic, and Middle Eastern traditions. Through the interweaving of autoethnographic insight, artistic creation, and scholarly inquiry, this study demonstrates how music evokes memory, supports emotional processing, and supports dialogue between multiple cultural worlds. Findings indicate that engagement with sound and musical practice contributes not only to personal identity formation but also to the creation of social belonging and spaces for intercultural dialogue. This research contributes to broader discussions on music, diaspora, and identity, offering insight into how artistic practices can mediate complex cultural experiences and support the integration of second-generation immigrants within multicultural societies.