Multi-talented Polish artist Anna Zaradny is not easily categorised. Born in Szczecin, she originally studied conducting and music theory at the Szczecin branch of the Academy of Music in Poznań. Combining her classical saxophone training with computer generated sounds, synthesisers or other electronic devices, Zaradny has gone on to become one of Poland’s best known experimental musicians. Her music is often described as tumultuous and highly textured, though no one track or performance is ever the same. Together with Robert Piotrowicz she runs record label Musica Genera, which is dedicated to contemporary electroacoustic music
Between 2002 — 2009 they also organised the Music Genera Festival, bringing improvised and experimental music to Szczecin. However, Zaradny’s career isn’t limited to music alone. Besides composing for theatres, for the last decade she has been exploring the uncharted territory of video, photography, dance and installation. It is this marriage of the audio and visual that has shaped her ever-evolving interdisciplinary practice. In 2016, she released her most recent solo album, Go Go Theurgy. That same year marked her mid-career retrospective entitled Rondo Denoting Circle at the Bunkier Sztuki Contemporary Art Gallery in Kraków. The artist punctuated the gallery with apertures of varying scales and spiral and circular forms, bringing attention to the way that sounds and light travel around the room with the viewer.
Anna Zaradny, RONDO ZNACZY KOŁO from Bunkier Sztuki on Vimeo.
Text: Liza Premiyak