Vedran Ružić: ”6 meters” – screening of an experimental documentary film and concert presentation of a music album

Vedran Ružić: 6 meters – screening of an experimental documentary film and concert presentation of a music album, Klanjec, Antun Augustinčić Gallery, April 22, 2023 (Saturday), at 6 p.m.

On Saturday, April 22, 2023, starting at 6 p.m., the Antun Augustinčić Gallery in Klanjec will host a screening of the experimental documentary film 6 meters and a concert presentation of the music album of the same name by Vedran Ružić, featuring the author as well as Pavle Miljenović on guitar, Adriano Bernobić on drums, and Mario Bočić on saxophone.

Vedran Ružić, a professional jazz musician and painter, and a multimedia artist, was introduced to the Klanjec audience in 2021, when we presented him with the sculpture exhibition Possible, Impossible, and this performance is being realized as part of his program Three Concert Visits of the Vedran Ružić Quartet in the Republic of Croatia, which was supported by the Ministry of Culture and Media of the Republic of Croatia.

The theme, motivation and activist tone of 6 meters led us to present them on the International Day of Mother Earth, and attendance at the program is free.

Vedran Ružić about the 6 meters project:

With the construction of the Matulji - Učka tunnel expressway in 1980, my family's house was only 6 meters from the road. Year after year, traffic became heavier and louder, and life without the crash barriers, which were not installed despite numerous inquiries, became unbearable. On top of that, for decades it was not known when and on which side the second lane of the road would be built, and consequently which homes would be demolished. The decision was made in early 2021, and the uncertainty was replaced by everyday stress and anticipation. As a participant in this, along with my family, neighbors and others who are going through the trauma of long-term uncertainty, I want to show the (in)significance of these people who, over several generations, are left without their land and live with noise. This is how the multidisciplinary project 6 meters was created, which includes a conceptual film, a series of installations and drawings, and original compositions combined on an album. On the album 6 meters, I stripped the music to its core; all that remained was a strong structure, like the walls of the house from which my family will soon move out, with the bass guitar and double bass in the lead roles. My brother also stands shoulder to shoulder, in the creation of the album, but also in life, as a producer, and the hidden actor of the whole story is the Highway studio, which, like the family house, found itself on the route of a new highway lane and is counting down the days until its demolition, so this album is the last work recorded in it. 

Wherever we are, we mostly hear noise. When we ignore it, it bothers us. When we listen to it, we think it is enchanting. (John Cage)

Vedran Ružić, a jazz musician (double bass and bass guitar), painter and multimedia artist, was born on August 26, 1986 in Rijeka. From an early age, he showed a penchant for painting, but during his high school education he began playing the bass guitar and making music. Actually self-taught (he received his only formal musical education in 2009, attending the Carinthian State Conservatory in Klagenfurt), over time he became an excellent musician. In addition to his professional music career, since 2010 he has increasingly picked up a brush and in 2013 he enrolled at the Academy of Applied Arts in Rijeka, majoring in painting, where in 2018 he earned the title of Master of Applied Arts with his thesis Connecting Music and Painting. He passionately expresses his obsession with this connection in the medium of painting, and recently, as evidenced by the circumstances of the lockdown, in the series of works Forbidden Melody, inspired by and imbued with a strong sculptural sensibility, also in the medium of sculpture, while in multimedia projects he connects music with other types of art. To date, he has organized around thirty solo exhibitions in the country and abroad and participated in ten group exhibitions.

After many years of participating in various projects, in 2015 he released his first original jazz album, Night Speaking, and in 2016 he created the project Spiritual Market, in which he combines jazz music and art film, in which he also tried his hand at the role of actor and co-writer. The quality of the album of the same name was recognized by the profession, so in 2017 he was nominated for our most prestigious music award, Porin, in two categories (best jazz composition and best jazz album), and won it in the category of best jazz album. With the aim of connecting music with some other form of art in each new original project, in 2019 he released his third original album, Libertin (which in live performances connects a jazz quartet and three contemporary dancers in a kind of jazz theater), and in 2020, in the midst of the pandemic, he recorded his fourth album, Forbidden Live, live. The fifth in a series of music albums will be released in 2022, as part of an activist-intoned project that also includes an experimental documentary film, titled 6 meters.

In addition to the aforementioned Porin, he has won two Status awards for best jazz bassist and jazz double bassist (2012 and 2020), several Annual Awards for Contribution to Culture − from the Primorje-Gorski Kotar County (2018), the City of Opatija (2018) and the Municipality of Matulji (2015 and 2018) − and a Special Recognition from the Academy of Applied Arts in Rijeka (2018). He is a member of the associations HZSU, HUOKU, HGU, HDLU and HDLU Rijeka, and lives and works in the village of Zvoneća in the hinterland of Opatija.