Improcon – Congress Of Free Improvised Music, Arts & Thoughts is an international creative platform and annual workshop festival organized by Croatian association Gokul from Zabok with Slovenian associations KUD Mreža from Ljubljana and Klub Metulj – Youth Centre Bistrica ob Sotli from Bistrica ob Sotli, partnered by two Austrian organizations: Schaumbad – Freies Atelierhaus from Graz, and Šopron Shuffle – Trans European Music Meetings from Vienna.
The workshop festival takes place at Spomen Dom in Kumrovec, Croatia, every year on the second weekend of August. Since its opening in 1974, Spomen Dom has been one of the most significant business and catering facility for major political conferences and seminars in former Yugoslavia. Since its closing in 1991, there have been ideas and plans about the reconstruction of Spomen Dom – which comprises more than 90 000 square meters -, but until today despite of its vast historical and cultural background, it remains abandoned and mostly out of use.
Our main goal with organizing Improcon – Congress Of Free Improvised Music, Arts & Thoughts is to encourage internatioanl artistic and theoretical collaborations, co-working, networking and development between musicians from free improvised music scenes, and dancers, performers, body artists, visual artists, theorists, sound engineers, journalists, curators and promoters dealing with free improvisation. On our previous workshop festivals more than 70 artists from different fields of art and from different countries – from France, Italy, Germany, Austria, Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia, Hungary etc. – have met and collaborated on the spot, in order to create new ideas and approaches, and to develop new collaborations in the future.
As Improcon – Congress Of Free Improvised Music, Arts & Thoughts is a workshop festival, it is not open for wider audience, however, we welcome everyone who is interested in what we are doing at Spomen Dom every year on the second weekend of August.
Improcon offers accomodation to all its participating artists in Spomen Dom and/or in Hostel Kumrovec and offers continental breakfast, lunch and dinner provided by Romani Kafenava, the first Gypsy restaurant in Europe, located in Maribor, Slovenia. Showering possibility is in Staro Selo Kumrovec and/or in Hostel Kumrovec.
Email contact: improconfest@gmail.com
Official website: Improcon