The Bydgoszcz Experiment Studio
Program
curator Sławek Janicki
parcitipates
Dr Nicola Leonard Hein
Katarzyna Podpora
10th July 2026 | 9:00 PM
MÓZG
ul. Parkowa 2
Sławek Janicki is a musician, experimental artist, filmmaker, and curator of artistic events. He began his artistic activity in the mid-1980s, as part of the artistic movements operating between Gdańsk and Bydgoszcz. He co-created the so-called Yass Scene, which was centered around the legendary Klub MÓZG, founded in 1994 and still run by Janicki today.
For more than 30 years, he has remained active (though without unnecessary pressure) on the international improvised music scene, performing across Europe and Australia. As a musician, he remains fully devoted to absolute improvisation as the purest form of music-making.
He has performed with countless artists from both the Polish and international improvisation scenes. He has recorded on CD and vinyl releases with musicians such as R. Mitchell, Peter Brötzmann, M. Feldman, Sainkho Namtchylak, Ned Rothenberg de Heney, Jerzy Mazzoll, Kazuhisa Uchihashi, Nicola Hein, Sylvie Courvoisier, Qba Janicki, Fred Frith, Toshinori Kondo, Tymon Tymański Gwinciński, J. Buhl, Kazik Staszewski, Jacek Zdunek, Mikołaj Zieliński, Łukasz Jędrzejczak, A. Maćkowiak, and Zbigniew Piernik.
In addition, he is the creator of television programs documenting the work and presenting the personalities of around 80 artists. As a filmmaker, he is the author and/or producer of more than 350 productions.
Sławek Janicki solo koncert, 5.10.2017
photo Lars H. Knudsen
Katarzyna Podpora is an intermedia artist whose practice is deeply connected to the sea — its auditory space, movement, and its impact on solid matter. She is also a translator and holds a doctorate in fine arts in the field of sculpture and intermedia. She lives and works in Gdańsk. In her artistic practice, she explores questions of materiality and the subjectivity of beings (both living and non-living), the ephemeral and performative aspects of form, as well as processuality and memory in the context of inscription and documentation through various media.
For many years, she has worked with sound as a creator of experimental and improvised music, emphasizing the role of her unique instrumentarium, composed of materials commonly regarded as waste — including the remains of non-human beings such as animal bones, dead plant matter, as well as broken instruments, damaged vinyl records, and tapes containing field recordings.
Her works have been presented at numerous exhibitions and festivals of contemporary art and music in Poland and abroad. In 2025, she released her solo album Shitgarden on Bocian Records.
Katarzyna Podpora, black accordion and Others, 02.2026
photo Kazimierz Zdziebło
Dr Nicola Leonard Hein is a sound artist, guitarist, composer, and researcher in music aesthetics and cybernetics. He is a professor of Sound Arts & Creative Music Technology, as well as the artistic director of the studio for electronic music at the University of Music Lübeck. He holds a Ph.D. from Columbia University, where he conducted extensive research in Critical Improvisation Studies and Human-Machine Improvisation, working with George E. Lewis.
His work is determined by the interaction of sound, space, light, movement, and the emergent dynamics of aesthetic systems. He fuses cybernetic human-machine interaction with interactive AI music systems, augmented reality, telematic real-time art, ambisonic sound projection, instrument-making, and conceptual compositions.
With the support of the Goethe-Institut and numerous other institutions, his works have been realized in over 30 countries. Presentations of his work have taken place at MaerzMusik Festival (Berlin), Ars Electronica (Linz), Moers Festival, A L'ARME! FESTIVAL (Berlin), Super Deluxe (Tokyo), Sonica Festival (Glasgow), Experimental Intermedia (New York), and many more.
Nicola L. Hein - Tertiary Protentions, 12.02.2021
photo Manuel Miethe
curator: Qba Janicki
parcitipates:
Qba Janicki
Ursula Sereghy
Michał Szota
18th November 2026 | 8:00 PM
MIEJSKIE CENTRUM KULTURY
ul. Marcinkowskiego 12
Qba Janicki (born 6 February 1989 in Bydgoszcz, Poland) is a composer, multi-instrumentalist, and producer emerging from the artistic community centered around the MÓZG club. Actively performing in Poland and abroad, he has collaborated with distinguished figures of the international improvised and experimental music scene, including Roscoe Mitchell, Jerzy Mazzoll, Sławek Janicki, Tomasz Sroczyński, Toshinori Kondo, Peter Brötzmann, Mats Gustafsson, and Teoniki Rożynek.
He currently performs both as a solo artist and within several key collaborative projects, including Malediwy (with Marek Pospieszalski), T’ien Lai (with Jakub Ziołek and Łukasz Jędrzejczak), the Marek Pospieszalski Octet, the trio AJAKS (with Pospieszalski and Max Mucha), and a duo with Grischa Lichtenberger. Alongside his concert activity, he also composes music for theatre productions, collaborating with acclaimed directors and collectives such as Krzysztof Garbaczewski, HERTZ HAUS, Maciej Podstawny, Ramona Nagabczyńska, and Paweł Łysak.
His artistic practice and sonic language emerge from the fusion of three principal areas of interest: freely improvised music, electronic club music, and sound art. Through self-designed instrumental environments, Janicki combines individual virtuosity, structural approaches to sound, and formal precision, developing a distinctive sonic language rooted in a profound understanding of contemporary musical realities.
Beyond his work as a performer and composer, Janicki is also actively engaged in cultural animation and community-building initiatives. As vice-president of the Fundacja MÓZG and the Stowarzyszenie Grupa Sokołowska, he co-organizes numerous interdisciplinary events in Bydgoszcz, Warsaw, and Sokołowsko, including the foundation’s flagship project, the MÓZG Festival.
Qba Janicki - "Emotional Mechanics", Dom Zabawy i Kultury, 6.08.2025
photo Marcin Szpak
Ursula Sereghy is a Prague-based electronic music producer, instrumentalist, recipient of the Vinyla Discovery of the Year 2022 award, Shape Platform+ alumni, and member of the educational project Synth Library. In September 2021, Ursula released her debut EP "OK Box" on the Gin&Platonic label, which received acclaim on both the Czech and international scenes. "OK Box" ranked on The Quietus' list of the best albums of 2021. Her EP Cordial is a hot listen, released on April 25 on polish label Mondoj. In December 2025 Ursula released short EP Unlock again on Gin&Platonic, unraveling her most vulnerable side.
She has been performing live all over Europe and been part of lineups of festivals such as Unsound, Insomnia, Unsafe Sounds, MENT or Lunchmeat.
Her music is shifting between beat oriented tunes and cozy soundscapes, using her voice, saxophone and last but not least her computer.
Ursula's characteristic sonic palette and organic intertwining of fragmented rhythms blend with lightly ironically sounding chorales and field recordings capturing the noises of cities and civilization listened to from a great distance. The rhythmic structures often describe longer or more complex patterns than usual, so the impression of chaos depends primarily on the listener's perception of order and coherence. The tracks create small corners, certain types of soundtracks to events in everyday life, which may then be perceived in a slightly different light. They could be seen as clues in the detective work of exploring the multiplicity of reality and perceiving one's own subjectivity, which is so intricately intertwined with the all-encompassing influences of myths and cultures that create what we call normalized reality.
photo Sasia Weissberg
Michał Szota(offline 1982-1996) works in digital creation and craftsmanship in the areas of communication and experimentation.
As a VJ, he searches for emotions and unconventional techniques. He uses his own software to improvise, drawing inspiration from media art and noise.
photo Patryk Gortych
About
The Bydgoszcz Experiment Studio project involves the creation and implementation of a series regular events whose main goal is to build a platform for innovative and uncompromising creative activities, independent of financial and economic conditions.
BSE has been carried out in the Mózg club for many years and is a workshop space for local artists who meet regularly, also inviting domestic and foreign artists to cooperate. This year, BSE was included in the list of projects thanks to which Bydgoszcz was included on the UNESCO list as a City of Music, which will provide an opportunity to develop the idea of the experiment.
The project will include unlimited sound/musical activities stylistic and interdisciplinary activities in which sound plays a key role.
The BSE program is organized in the following way: The project’s creator, Sławek Janicki, invites curators to cooperate. These curators organize two-day events and invite artists from Poland and abroad. Under the curator's guidance, the artists create a new, interdisciplinary work.
The artists' work is recorded through audio and video. After each meeting, a film is made to introduce the artists and show their creative process. On the second day of each part of the project, the new work is presented to the public.
This year, S. Janicki is also acting as one of the curators. He has invited Nicola Hein, a German guitarist and philosopher, and Katarzyna Podpora, a Polish multi-instrumentalist, to collaborate.
Two presentations for this year's project are planned for July 10 and November 18. The first one will traditionally take place at Mózg. The second one, led by Qba Janicki, will be held at the Municipal Cultural Center (MOK). It will include a presentation of video materials summarizing the previous six editions of BSE. Qba has invited Ursula Sereghy (vocals/saxophone/electronics) and Michał Szota (visuals) to join the project.
The Bydgoszcz Experiment Studio is part of The Platform of Newly Created Transgressive Sounds project, included in the City of Bydgoszcz application as part of applying for entry into the UNESCO Creative Cities Network.
The project is implemented with funds from the Bydgoszcz UNESCO City of Music program.