zhel

21/10/2025

Portrait of me by Goran Grujić Grujo
Drawn many moons ago ~> back when we still believed paper could hold memory.
And we were right.

20/10/2025

TV Calendar:
Thirty years ago today —>
“Northern Eye, Southern Blood, Western Bullet, Eastern God”
album launch at the Istrian National Theatre (INK),
21 October 1995.

Photos by Igor Zirojević and Igor Dražić.
Live:
https://youtu.be/WHXmc8OuuKY?si=AdderC49PiPRXmoa

Album redux (1995, 2016):
https://zhel.bandcamp.com/album/northern-eye-southern-blood-western-bullet-eastern-god-redux

07/10/2025

What was once the sole language of artists and composers is now the means of communication for everyone. By sharing pictures, music, emoticons, and sounds through social networks, we exchange not only what we "think" but how we "feel" at any given moment. Most people even prefer such communication over traditional methods that include written language.
There is a very practical reason for this shift. Given that on the social networks we are communicating with people from all over the world, this kind of exchange transcends typical “foreign language” obstacles as sounds, songs, and images are mediums we all feel and instantly understand. Some even argue that it also allows us to interpret things more individually. Immediacy trumps accuracy and precision. Given the enormous speed in the development of these new visual/aural hybrid languages, it is not out of the realm of possibility that in the future the written word may be used ever more sparingly. A single question arises: are national languages becoming obsolete in this growing sphere?

© Zhel 2015

07/10/2025

I have recently recorded *Northern Eye, Southern Blood, Western Bullet, Eastern God*, and I’m doing a photo shoot for the promo material on the roof of my house. In exactly two weeks, I’ll present the album for the first time at the Istrian National Theatre in Pula. Come check it. The year is 1995.

Photo by Igor Zirojević.

26/09/2025

I Am In A World.
- Nothing has changed. Our silence permits the unthinkable.

from the album Ponte Rosso

17/09/2025

*Echo 2025 (4’10)*
Directed, Produced & Performed (music) by Željko Vukičević Zhel
Featuring Jadranka Đokić
Sound Mixing & Production: Blackhill

Eleven years after my two-channel installation Mute Departures: Stay Awake and Echo (2014), I revisited the material and isolated Jadranka Đokić’s performance from the “Echo” part.

The result is a recomposed piece with new sound and music, reflecting on how time reshapes both images and meaning.

https://youtu.be/_fK9ztirZbE
fans

Directed, Produced & Performed (music) by Željko Vukičević ZhelFeaturing Jadranka ĐokićSound Mixing & Production: BlackhillEleven years after my two-channel ...

21/08/2025

This is becoming more common, and it’s hurting artists.
If you want to support the musicians you love, go directly to their websites or Bandcamp. Yes, Bandcamp takes a small cut—but it’s nothing compared to what streaming giants do.

Streaming platforms are worth billions, yet they pay artists next to nothing. Imagine earning only $20–$50 a year for hundreds of hours of people listening to your work. That’s the reality. These companies rely on convenience and our complacency.

But think about it—would you accept that kind of treatment at your own job?
It’s time to push back. Support artists directly.

zhel.bandcamp.com

11/08/2025

Happy to announce that OPEN UP THAT ROBOT (2024) has been selected for the New Media section of the 30th Split Film Festival.
Premiered at Garden Cinema, Covent Garden, London as part of the ‘Trust No Thought of Mine’ omnibus, the film now joins a festival that has, since its beginnings, championed experimental, radical, and subversive works.

A subversive homage to Dušan Makavejev and Isidore Isou, OPEN UP THAT ROBOT unfolds as a sensual, absurdist manifesto: a woman eats a soft-shelled egg, sucks a shoelace, and shares a cooked egg—mouth to mouth—with a director. Between these gestures, slogans flare like cinematic sabotage: commands to misread, dismantle, and reprogram.

Emil Hand

12/07/2025

OK, you devilish creatures of July.
Sharing Portolan — a track from my unreleased 2004 album Happyend in the Lubberland, recorded in 2003 in London with Zenith Publishing in Cambridge, UK.
Originally written and performed for the opening of the Oprtalj Film Festival in 2000 — nearly 25 years ago now.

This version drifts into proggy electronica territory — spacier, a little more twisted — compared to the quieter, more ’60s-cinematic original. I might return to it someday in the future. In the meantime: give it a spin!

Shoutout to Suvi Leukumaavaara — her vision for a cover that never happened still haunts the track in the best way.

from the album Happyend In The Lubberland

03/07/2025

https://medium.com//thompson-i-odjeci-nacije-metastaza-jednog-mita-fea769d93534

Postoji onaj neugodni trenutak kad glazbenik komentira drugog — obično završi kao pasivno-agresivna ljubomora u A-molu. No, ovo nije…

17/06/2025

The latest project, Trust No Thought Of Mine (2023–2025), is now available on the website. Private viewing only.

https://zhel.net/video.html

15/06/2025

‘Put All Eggs In One Basket’ (Zhel, 2024) at the 22nd *IN THE PALACE* - short film festival, 27.06 - 1.07. 2025, Pernik, Bulgaria.

https://www.instagram.com/p/DK6fjiRO_yY/?igsh=ejFzN281ZWgxN29j

website: https://www.inthepalace.com/en