Kruno Jošt

The research-art project “Concerto Quieto,” named after the Italian name for the Mirna River in Istria, is one of those increasingly present contemporary artistic practices that call for a transdisciplinary approach to the relationship between humans and the natural environment, where natural sciences are at a standstill, opening up new worlds and possibilities. Kruno Jošt, a multimedia artist who has been applying such a practice for years, deals with the interrelationships of science, art, and sustainable development on his permaculture estate near Lovinac in Lika.

One such approach is the form of a scientific laboratory through which Kruno Jošt explores how remediation of the river is created through the medium of sound, i.e., how microbes (non-humans) can help in the decomposition of the river’s toxic sediment without intrusive impact on the environment.

He applies a similar approach to the micro-location of the Mirna River’s flow and estuary. Its area abounds with rich flora and fauna and is an important location for the migration, overwintering, and nesting of water habitat birds. Regardless of the fact that the Mirna (still) is not a polluted river, due to erosion processes, wastewater from settlements, and artificial fertilizers, its natural biological and landscape diversity is endangered year after year.

For the needs of the exhibition in the Rigo Gallery, Kruno Jošt visits the Mirna River several times. In doing so, he collects water and sediment samples, stays alone with the river, listens to it, observes its flows, writes notes, and makes photo documentation. Jošt observes the micro-world from the collected samples of the Mirna River through a microscope. Based on the enlarged living “images” of microbes, he singles out those in which he finds abstract forms that he transfers to the medium of photography. In this way, he transforms the invisible world of microbes into visual forms that, with Jošt’s subsequent interventions, also gain a sound background – a composition for the micro-world of the Mirna River. Inspired by the findings from scientific research on sound frequencies that favor the numerical growth or reduction of individual microorganisms, Jošt creates a composition for the micro-world of the Mirna River.

Composition for River Mura offers a unique journey through a series of photographs, videos, and sound compositions linked to four distinct locations along the Mura River: Sveti Martin na Muri, Podturen, Goričan, and Legrad. This multimedia exhibition masterfully blends art and science, creating an aesthetic experience that blurs the lines between the river, the laboratory, and the gallery, inviting visitors to explore unseen ecosystems functioning in their own rhythm and balance.

Jošt’s approach is deeply rooted in transdisciplinary practices, delving into the local context down to the micro-level. His work, which includes extensive field research, laboratory analysis, and digital processing, is not only artistically significant but also serves as valuable documentation, particularly relevant in our times of climate change and ecological crises. This art actively observes, maps, and becomes a space for change.

Supported by MURAI center for culture and education and Bioinstitut d.o.o. for expert and technical assistance, the project highlights the crucial dialogue between science and art as a shared language for analyzing reality and creating new artistic expressions. Kruno Jošt, an artist focused on ecological contextuality, permaculture, and sustainability, has studied at prestigious institutions and exhibits internationally, developing artistic and educational programs that explore the interrelationships of science, art, and sustainable development.

During nonconsecutive three months artist in residency in Halland region of Sweden, a research was conducted around the problematic toxic sediment created by extensive industrial history of the Borås city on the Viskan river as a part of proposals for the theme of artistic “ecological literacy”.

During residency, for the project purposes Viskan was visited on many occasion. Canoe travel was undertaken to collect samples of the river that were later used to examine microbiological life of the river.

As known from scientific research, some forms of toxicity can be remediated with microorganisms so this was taken as an inspiration to look into ways of enlarging their numbers and activity locally.

Microorganisms can be influenced trough certain sound frequencies in certain volumes that in some cases enlarges their number in shorter time, and without any unwanted effects to environment.

After conducting a research on sound frequencies and its influences on observed microorganisms in the collected samples some of them were designed for the informance (informative performance) on the river itself.

Canoe was arranged into a vessel that can take one participants on the river trip. This canoe had an installation for playing sounds beneficial for the bacteria, but was also tailored for each participant to get into a state of appreciation of the river. At the same time participants could release what is known as Miracle Enzyme, organic compound beneficial for the microorganisms that was created in a prior workshop. An intimate visual reference was tailored for each individual observance of Viskan river and its inhabitants, with accompanying sound and information about micro and macro cosmos.

Research and performative action were executed during Art Inside Out residency Between the Rains in region Halland, Sweden in 2022.

Whole photo-log can be seen below

Photo of a found object, an oak tree leaf that has fallen on the snow. Radiated by the sun, leaf has accumulated enough energy to melt its own image in inverse, a sort of its own cast in the snow.

Photo is a part of  Minor Disturbances with participation of following artists: Rita Cachão, Henry Collins, Edith Doove, Bruno Duarte, Margarete Jahrmann, Kruno Jošt, Jason Karaindros, Robert Maddox-Harle, Ollivier Moreels & Jean-Louis Vincendeau, Sana Murrani,Guiherme Pontes, Michael Punt,Aparna Sharma and Paul Towey.

Inspired by Charles Ives vision of spatially distributed creativity in his unfinished Universe Symphony, The Faculty of Minor Disturbances (FMD) sent out an invitation to create a minor disturbance as we corralled the forces of the universe together with 2I/Borisov, an interstellar comet which visited the solar system.

Ives’s The Unanswered Question was said to be written under the influence of by the New England writers Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau.

See participating works here >>