Painting Music: When Sound Becomes an Image

What happens when music meets not only the ear, but also the hand, color, and movement?

In the project Malujeme hudbu (Painting Music) - sound turns into lines, rhythm into gesture, and melody into image. Participants do not simply listen to music. They explore it, respond to it, and translate it into their own visual language. Each artwork becomes a personal record of what was heard, felt and experienced.

The project connects music, visual art, movement, perception and collective experiences s. It is open to children, young people, adults, and seniors - people of different ages, experiences, and ways of expression. At its heart is intergenerational and multicultural dialogue: a meeting of people who might not usually meet in everyday life, but who can find a common language through music, creativity and shared memories.

Between 2020 and 2025, more than thirteen Malujeme hudbu workshops took place in Brno and its surroundings. They were held in schools, community spaces, and important cultural institutions, including the Brno House of Arts, the Moravian Gallery in Brno, and the Leoš Janáček Memorial. The workshops often include a short introduction to abstract painting, graphic scores, and different ways of recording music and sound beyond traditional musical notation.

Over time, the project also expanded into the digital space. The graphic scores created during the workshops inspired Radim Hanousek to develop the interactive website Malujeme hudbu. Since 2023, the project has also included video recordings from workshops, documentation of exhibitions, and interviews with inspiring people who approach sound, music, and their recording from different perspectives.

An important part of the project is the cooperation with Asociace Babylon - Babylon Association - which has long supported national minorities, intercultural dialogue and mutual respect in Brno and the South Moravian Region. Every year, Asociace Babylon organises Babylonfest - Dny národnostních menšin (Babylonfest - Days of National Minorities) - in cooperation with the Committees for National Minorities of the Brno City Assembly and the South Moravian Regional Assembly, as well as organisations representing national and ethnic minorities.

Thanks to this cooperation, workshops were created for children and young people from national minority communities. Their artworks were later presented to the public as part of the exhibitions Babylonská věž (The Tower of Babel) - in 2024 at Arnold Villa, and Babička a my (Grandmother and Us) - in 2025 at the Palace of Noble Ladies of the Moravian Museum. Both exhibitions presented literary and visual works by children and young people from national minorities and supported the young generation in discovering personal and cultural identity.

Irena Iškievová also plays an important role in the project. She has long been dedicated to connecting visual art, music, work with children and community environments. Under her guidance, workshops and exhibition activities have taken shape, showing how art can open space for perception, communication and understanding.

The project has also naturally expanded into intergenerational work. Between January and June 2025, workshops in homes for seniors took place in cooperation with Multicultural Center Brusinka, under the production leadership of Viktorie Netíková and her team, together with Irena Iškievová, Radim Hanousek, the organisation ADRA, secondary school students and students of Masaryk University.

In cooperation with Hana Huťová from ADRA, four informal meeting sessions known as “setkávárny” were held directly in homes for seniors, with the participation of students from the secondary school programme in Social Work. Employees of the Moravian Gallery in Brno also took part in selected activities. Professional and methodological support for work with seniors was provided by Lucie Vidovičová and Pavel Sochor from Masaryk University.

Here, music and visual art were not only creative activities. They helped support communication, concentration, fine and gross motor skills, movement with music and the joy of time spent together. The meetings between students, artists and seniors also naturally encouraged empathy, kindness and mutual attention.

In this form, Malujeme hudbu is closely connected to what Multicultural Center Brusinka has been developing over the long term: a space where people can meet naturally, without pressure to perform, without the need for perfect language skills or previous artistic experience. A child, a senior, a student, a person from a minority community, or a new resident of the city does not need to prove anything here. It is enough to be present, to listen and to create.

The strength of the project lies in its simplicity. It is not necessary to know how to paint. It is not necessary to understand music theory. One person may capture rhythm as repeating lines, another may express silence as empty space and someone else may translate a melody into color slowly spreading across the paper. Every image is different - just like every person who creates it.

Malujeme hudbu shows that art does not have to be distant, complicated, or reserved only for experts. It can be close, playful and deeply meaningful at the same time. It can connect generations, cultures and personal stories. Not only that, but it can open sensitive topics and create space for encounter where words alone may not be enough. It is a way to give sound a shape and people a different kind of space to meet - through creativity, music and shared experience.

The activity was supported in 2025 within the project DOBRÝ SOUSED 2025 HARTMANN - RICO and by Umění pro zdraví - Art for Health Foundation.

Interview

Anka Sedláčková

Web

Malujeme hudbu