On 19 May 2026, we gathered to remember Boštjan Leskovšek, co-founder of our noisy Cirkulacija 2, who passed away far too soon on the very same day in 2025, following a relentless battle with Alzheimer’s disease.

A sound artist, poet and performer, Boštjan Leskovšek is regarded as one of the pioneers of Slovenian experimental sound art and a key figure in the interdisciplinary artistic platform Cirkulacija 2 – House of Artists. He never confined his artistic journey to a single discipline. Instead, driven by curiosity and innovation, he helped shape artistic movements that continue to resonate today. Through music and sound, he opened up new dimensions of experiencing the world. As early as the 1990s, he was among the founders of the POPOPO movement (POezija PO POšti – Poetry by Post). His musical oeuvre includes several albums released by Trivia Records. Alongside his artistic projects, he was also an active contributor to RTV Slovenija, helping to promote and bring contemporary art and culture to wider audiences.

Remembering Boštjan led us towards making more noise — a territory he passionately explored and adored. With this in mind, the current little ants of Cirkulacija 2 decided to establish an ongoing annual festival, AFTER NOISE IS NOISE, named after Boštjan’s composition of the same title, released a decade ago.

We marked the festival’s opening with a special tribute. The Year of the Snake brought many changes, felt even deep in the underground. In 2025, the older generation of Cirkulacija 2 finally entrusted their teenage offspring to the hands of a younger generation, placing their full confidence in its care. To honour this trust, and in recognition of their invaluable creative contributions to independent culture and their significant role in shaping Cirkulacija 2, we awarded honorary membership of the Cirkulacija 2 association to the founders and long-standing contributors of our interdisciplinary station and platform¹ for live art:

• Majda Gregorič — co-founder, sculptor and sensorial explorer of materials.
• Ksenja Čerče — co-founder, painter and researcher of the structures of visual and sonic movement.
• Borut Savski — co-founder, known for his autonomous bodies that respond to their surroundings, incorporating environmental stimuli into their production of sound and movement through space.
• Stefan Doepner — co-founder, sound artist and researcher of technology.
• Boštjan Leskovšek — our late co-founder, honoured posthumously.
• Milan Kristl — long-standing contributor and analogue noiser.
• Jakob Harisch — an intriguing fellow, collaborator and chemist.

The festival is conceived as an annual remembrance of Boštjan Leskovšek and a gathering of artists, listeners and friends. Its aim is to strengthen the noise community and support the development of noise practices in Slovenia.

For its inaugural edition, we reached out to key figures of the noise scene and joined forces with DRMK, a volunteer youth collective dedicated to encouraging and enabling cultural initiatives related to alternative music and art on a non-profit, non-commercial basis.

To date, the collective has organised 80 events known as “Mladinske akcije” (Youth Actions), including annual editions of the International Noise Festival, launched in 2001, as well as numerous concerts featuring bands from different countries.

Over four days, from 19 to 22 May 2026, the festival presented a wide range of approaches to noise — from dense, physically intense sonic structures to minimal and subtle expressions — alongside open improvisational formats that kept the space alive, communal and unpredictable.

The ceremonial opening evening concluded with performances by sound artists Bass Jansson and Elvin Brandhi. The following evenings featured a noise jam session by Jazz
Club Mezzoforte, along with performances by robrrr_, Pimpon, and Jozo Elektronik, Morče, ĐABE LAJF, Sist En 343, and Sachko.

¹ Borut Savski describes the station as an artistic workshop, a research and development laboratory, and a presentation space for technologically oriented artistic production. The fundamental artistic form of Cirkulacija 2 takes shape as an event situated in space and time, guided by a conceptual framework that remains open rather than restrictive. It brings together a large and diverse group of participants and an abundance of technology — often self-built — alongside programming, computer-based, web, media, radio, robotic, sound and video art, essays, critical discourse, performances, musical compositions, painting, sculpture, ceramics, and the indispensable dimension of social activity.
It is, therefore, a space for self-organisation, encounters and anti-hierarchical experimentation among a community of individuals operating in different environments. A conceptual platform that opens up possibilities for individual desires, needs and autonomous contributions. Ideally, each participant contributes on approximately equal terms. At the same time, it is important to emphasise that this kind of modular, platform-based practice is not collective work in the conventional sense. What matters most is always the shared development of the conceptual platform itself. The platform is, by its very nature, a temporary construct.
Borut Savski, Cirkulacija 2: A Space of Temporariness, Independence, Self-Production and the Circulation of Contemporary Art, Ljubljana, Likovne besede, No. 132, 2026, page 20 – 22.