Shut Up! is an allusion to the inability to communicate as desired—to the failure of expressing one’s thoughts in a conventional, easily comprehensible way. This can be imagined in various forms. A pane of glass appears between the speaker and the listener, through which no sound can pass. We can see the speaker trying with all their might to convey something, yet we lack the means to understand it. It may be a sudden physical impairment that disrupts the speaker’s plans, an unexpected physical distance, a malfunction in the media through which we communicate—or death itself. A powerful urge to say something to a loved one—like a spirit trapped in a bottle—adrift in the middle of an ocean, unable to reach its destination. At first, it resists, tries, seeks ways, adapts to solitude—then ultimately falls silent and merges with the quiet, which carries within it all the messages of the world. Pure silence restores the true measure of life.
The piece was composed in January 2021 at the initiative of the Academy of Music in Ljubljana.