Paweł Szroniak's residence in Berlin lasted from the 29th of July to the 3rd of September 2017. The main aim of the  residence was to carry out an analysis of the local experimental music scene, focusing on people responsible for organising cyclical events – concerts and exhibitions, as well as those using other strategies for systematic promotion of this kind of art outside the official circulation of cultural institutions.

Szroniak looked for initiatives complementary to his own curatorial activities carried out in Wrocław, and thus also adaptable in other places and contexts. The wide range of issues related to the substantive development of the artistic programme and the educational dimension of activities pertaining to experimental musical forms was of particular interest for him. Paweł Szroniak also paid a lot of attention to presenting practices enabling effective animation of the music community, promotion of events and their economic conditions. However, the thematic constraints adopted by the author did not prevent him from thoroughly exploring the Berlin music scene as a whole, which allowed for capturing its internal heteronomy and reconstruct the stylistic evolution that has taken place over the last twenty-five years. Throughout his residency, Szroniak met several dozen highly regarded and esteemed musicians, sound artists and researchers, visited some of the most important places for the experimental scene and explored numerous publications devoted to local artistic activities connected with sound. These explorations resulted with an open discussion panel entitled Experimentalism in Berlin: From Echtzeitmusik to post-reductionism and beyond, which took place on the 28th of August at Kunsthaus KuLe, and featured Andrea Neumann, Steffi Weismann, Burkhard Beins, and Kai Fagaschinski.

Another tangible result of the residence is a series of seven in-depth interviews with Bryan Eubanks, Koen Nutters, Andrea Neumann, Christian Kesten, Nicolas Wiese, Daniel Löwenbrück and Carsten Stabenow, which will be published as part of a bilingual publication. The contacts established in Berlin also enable a gradual expansion of the artistic offer of the “Rozkurz” series of concerts with events featuring Berlin-based artists, which will take place in the upcoming few months.

All the research in the field of innovative curatorial practices and the history of experimental music started in August will be continued, taking the form of work in the process.

Paweł Szroniak is a curator and literary theorist. Since 2013 he organizes a series of concerts “Rozkurz”, which is dedicated to the experimental music. Among his main interests and research topics are: history of avant-garde movements, small music, conceptual tendencies in contemporary art and unconventional examples of music notation, especially text scores. Szroniak has been collaborating with numerous cultural institutions and festivals, including Bunkier Sztuki in Kraków, Museum of Art in Łódź, Wrocław Contemporary Museum, BWA Wrocław, Sanatorium of Sound Festival (Sokołowsko), Festival of Theatrical Music (Jelenia Góra), Mikrofestiwal – Festival of New Poetry (Wrocław). In 2016 he was a managing editor of the #29 issue of Glissando magazine. Lives and works in Wrocław.