BIO
Lenka Morávková is a Czech-born, Los Angeles–based transmedia artist, composer and performer working across sound, performance, installation and moving image.
Her practice moves between experimental music and contemporary art, often using glass, technology, the body and site-specific environments as both material and symbolic systems. She is the creator of the Bohemian Cristal Instrument, a one of a kind acoustic sound sculpture from glass based on legendary Cristal Baschet that has become central to her performance and sound practice.
Morávková’s work has been presented internationally across museums, festivals and interdisciplinary platforms, including The Broad, ISEA (International Symposium of Digital Arts), Burning Man, Eurosonic, Lightning in a Bottle and TEDx, spanning contexts from experimental music and performance to immersive and new media art.
Her artistic practice is informed by an extensive academic background in social anthropology, ethnomusicology and digital culture. She conducted graduate research at Charles University and UCLA’s Herb Alpert School of Music before pursuing doctoral studies in Ethnomusicology and Digital Composition at UC Riverside. Her research explored ritual, music and subcultures, participation, technology, power and cultural transformation — concerns that continue to inform her artistic work.
ARTISTIC PRACTICE
Morávková’s practice explores the shifting boundaries between human, technological and natural worlds, and the systems of meaning, power and belief through which we attempt to understand and control them.
Rooted in sound and expanded through performance, moving image and installation, her work frequently transforms glass, technology, the body and landscape into instruments, environments and ritual objects. Sound operates not only as composition, but as a physical and spatial force — capable of activating materials, bodies and altered states of perception.
A recurring element of her practice is ritual, transformation and subversion. She is drawn to liminal moments when familiar systems begin to break down — when technology fails, environments become unstable, identities dissolve, or established hierarchies lose their authority. Rather than treating collapse solely as an endpoint, she approaches it as a threshold through which new relationships and forms can emerge.
Her work often uses subversion, absurdity and dark humor to destabilize systems that otherwise appear fixed or authoritative. Technologies are misused, broken or turned against their intended purpose; familiar objects acquire unexpected agency; destruction can become celebratory, and serious social or ecological questions coexist with playfulness and provocation.
Her work carries a subtle undercurrent of mysticism without explicit religious symbolism. She is interested in the invisible structures connecting seemingly opposing systems: organic and technological, ancient and futuristic, physical and digital, rational and intuitive. Mysticism surfaces through resonance, repetition, code, elemental forces and encounters between human and more-than-human forms of agency.
This inquiry runs through her works including Bohemian Cristal Instrument, Glass Spilled Out From THe Broken Bathtub, This Is Not A Pleasant Sound, Collapsoscape, When The Waves Become Walls, New Nature and the ongoing My Home My Torture series. Across them, machines acquire vulnerability, glass becomes sonic and bodily, landscapes act as agents rather than backgrounds, and the boundaries between human, material and environment become increasingly unstable.
At the center of Morávková’s practice is a recurring question:
What happens when the systems we rely on — technological, environmental, social or personal — stop behaving as we expect?
SELECTED RECOGNITIONS - VIEW CV
CV
Mgr. LENKA MORÁVKOVÁ, Dis.
Transmedia Artist · Composer · Performer
[DOWNLOAD FULL CV ↓]
SELECTED EXHIBITIONS & PERFORMANCES
2026
My Home My Torture III — LA Fires
Multimedia installation / video art / performance
Currently in development
2024
Bohemian Cristal Instrument — Laser & Sound Residency, Palác Akropolis, Prague, Czech Republic
2023
New Nature — ISEA, International Symposium on Electronic Art, Paris, France
Concept selected for presentation from 1,600 submissions
2016
Collapsoscape — NOV Gallery, Pardubice, Czech Republic
Collapsoscape — Avoid Gallery, Prague, Czech Republic
When the Waves Become Walls — Culver Center of the Arts, Riverside, California, USA — premiere
Glass Spilled Out From the Broken Bathtub — conference paper, Music and Labor Conference, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada
Glass Spilled Out From the Broken Bathtub — conference paper, Locations and Dislocations Conference, Rider University, USA
Bohemian Cristal Instrument — TEDx Talk / Performance — University of California, Riverside, USA
2015
My Home / My Torture II — Peace Ave — Gallery of the City of Pardubice / CRE ART, Pardubice, Czech Republic
This Is Not a Really Pleasant Sound — Street Alive, Pilsen, Czech Republic
This Is Not a Really Pleasant Sound — Art Fair Prague, Prague, Czech Republic
2014
This Is Not a Really Pleasant Sound — Septemberbeam Festival, Olomouc, Czech Republic
This Is Not a Really Pleasant Sound — solo exhibition, Gallery of the City of Pardubice, Pardubice, Czech Republic
2013
My Home / My Torture I — CRE ART, Pardubice, Czech Republic
My Home / My Torture I — NATURE Festival, Ljubljana, Slovenia
Fucking at a Distance Is Not Fucking — CRE ART, Pardubice, Czech Republic
Fucking at a Distance Is Not Fucking — NATURE Festival, Ljubljana, Slovenia
This Is Not a Really Pleasant Sound — solo exhibition, Avoid Gallery, Prague, Czech Republic
2012
My Home / My Torture I — Mostra Sonora i Visual, Barcelona, Spain
Fucking at a Distance Is Not Fucking — Mostra Sonora i Visual, Barcelona, Spain
Glass Spilled Out From the Broken Bathtub — International Glass Symposium IGS, Nový Bor, Czech Republic
Glass Spilled Out From the Broken Bathtub — Czech National Radio / Vltava, radio documentary and interview
2011
My Home / My Torture I — Street for Art, Prague, Czech Republic
Glass Spilled Out From the Broken Bathtub — New Stage of the National Theatre, Prague, Czech Republic
Glass Spilled Out From the Broken Bathtub - Radio Documentary, commissioned by Czech National Radio 3
2010
Glass Spilled Out From the Broken Bathtub — United Islands Festival / MeetFactory, Prague, Czech Republic
Glass Spilled Out From the Broken Bathtub — Moving Station, Pilsen, Czech Republic
Glass Spilled Out From the Broken Bathtub — Fléda, Brno, Czech Republic
Glass Spilled Out From the Broken Bathtub — Klub Na Rampě, Jablonec nad Nisou, Czech Republic
SELECTED PERFORMANCE & INSTITUTIONAL PRESENTATIONS
2025 Burning Man / Reverbia — Black Rock City, Nevada, USA
2024 Czech Center New York — New York, USA
2023 All About Music India - India' s Premiere B2B Music Conference
2023 Lightning in a Bottle — California, USA
2020 Summit LA — Los Angeles, USA
2019 Eurosonic Noorderslag — Groningen, Netherlands
2017 The Broad — Los Angeles, USA
2017 - Colors Of Ostrava festival, CZ
2016 TEDx / University of California Riverside — Riverside, USA
Selected performances with Bohemian Cristal Instrument.
AWARDS & RECOGNITION
2026 — Chengdu International Digital Light Art Festival
My Home My Torture III — Shortlisted for the Video Art Category Award
22 projects shortlisted from 320 international submissions
2026 — Emerging Producers
Selected as one of two Czech representatives for the European professional program connected with Ji.hlava International Documentary Film Festival
2023 — ISEA, International Symposium on Electronic Art, Paris
New Nature selected for presentation from approximately 1,600 submissions
2017 and on - O-1 Extraordinary Ability in the Arts — United States
SELECTED GRANTS & FELLOWSHIPS
State Culture Fund of the Czech Republic — Bohemian Cristal Instrument: Sound of Glass Between Music and Immersive Media
City of Prague Grant — multiple supports for various projects (This Is Not a Really Pleasant Sound, BCI, …)
City of Liberec — multiple artistic project supports
Culture Moves Europe — international artistic mobility
ASEF — Asia-Europe Foundation — international artistic mobility / presentation
SoundCzech / Ministry of Culture of the Czech Republic — multiple international music export and mobility grants
OSA Grants (Czech PRO)— multiple grants supporting Bohemian Cristal Instrument and My Name Is Ann
2016–2017 — VIP Gluck Fellowship, University of California Riverside — Bohemian Cristal Instrument / Crystal Playground
2015 — City of Pardubice Grant
2013 — Charles University Mobility Fund / PRVOUK — Visiting Graduate Researcher at UCLA
2010 — Youth in Action European Union Grant— Glass Spilled Out From the Broken Bathtub
2007 — Pépinières Européennes pour Jeunes Artistes — artist residency, Huesca, Spain
RESIDENCIES & PROFESSIONAL PROGRAMS
2026 — Emerging Producers, Ji.hlava International Documentary Film Festival
2024 — Light & Sound Residency, Palác Akropolis, Prague, Czech Republic
2016–2017 — VIP Gluck Fellowship, University of California Riverside, USA
2013 — Visiting Graduate Researcher, UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music, Los Angeles, USA
2007 — Pépinières Européennes pour Jeunes Artistes, Huesca, Spain
SELECTED RECORDING, SCREEN & COMPOSER COLLABORATIONS
2023 Ruby Gillman, Teenage Kraken — DreamWorks Animation
Bohemian Cristal Instrument recording for the original score by Grammy winner Stephanie Economou
2022 Red November — Michael Choi
Bohemian Cristal Instrument recording for the original soundtrack by Michael Choi
2023 The Bikeriders
Bohemian Cristal Instrument — trailer music synchronization
2023 The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart
Bohemian Cristal Instrument — trailer music synchronization
2021 Heavy Duty Projects, New York
Exclusive recording collaboration — original Bohemian Cristal Instrument sound collection created for the trailer music community
2021 Jeff Rona — album Lume
Composition and recording collaboration — voice and Bohemian Cristal Instrument
2017 William Close & The Earth Harp Collective — Colours of Ostrava, Czech Republic
Headlining performance collaboration featuring the Bohemian Cristal Instrument and Earth Harp
SELECTED COMMISSIONS / COLLABORATIONS
SELECTED RESEARCH & P
2023 — “Art As an Applied Philosophy of Life: Aspects of Commodification and Audience Participation in the Baschet Brothers’ Work” — World Music Colloquium, Mexico City
2016 — TEDx Talk / Performance with Bohemian Cristal Instrument — University of California Riverside
2016 — Glass Spilled Out From the Broken Bathtub — Music and Labor Conference, University of Toronto
2016 — “From Favelas to Top Charts: Commodification of Brazilian Genre Favela Funk Through One Sample Story” — SEMSCHC Conference, UCLA
2014 — “Music of Favela Funk as a New Source of Power and Pride for Favelados” — Conference on Power and Inequality, Bratislava
2012 — “Performative Aspect of the Breakcore Music Genre” — World Music Colloquium, Czech Republic
2012 - Jeremy Bailey: “My Art Is A Big Apology Of a White Man Living In A Privilige World”, interview for DigiCult Magazine
EDUCATION & RESEARCH
University of California, Riverside
Doctoral Studies — Ethnomusicology, minor in Digital Composition
2015–2017
UCLA — Herb Alpert School of Music
Visiting Graduate Researcher, Ethnomusicology
2013–2014
Charles University, Faculty of Humanities, Prague
Graduate Studies — Social Anthropology / Ethnomusicology
2011–2014
Charles University, Faculty of Humanities, Prague
MA — Electronic Culture & Semiotics, minor in Anthropology
2006–2008
College of Journalism, Prague 2003 - 2006
EDUCATION
PhD program
University California Riverside, USA 2015 - 2017
Department of Music, Ethnomusicology major with minor in Digital Composition
Charles University, Faculty of Humanities, Prague 2011 - 2014
department of Social Anthropology with a focus on Ethnomusicology
University of California, Los Angeles, USA 2013 - 2014
Herb Alpert School of Music, department of Ethnomusicology, Visiting Graduate Researcher
Master of Arts
Charles University, Faculty of Humanities, Prague 2006 - 2008
department of Electronic culture and Semiotics, minor in Anthropology
Thesis:
Breakcore: Blurring the Lines - Cultural Analysis of Urban Electronic Genre Breakcore and Ethnographic Case Study of Cuban Magic Santería in Music of Otto Von Schirach
Bachelor of Arts
Josef Škvorecký Academy of Literature, Prague 2007 - 2008
Thesis:
Current Tendencies in Performance Art in the Czech Republic
Private College of Journalism, VOŠP, Prague 2001- 2004
Charles University, Pedagogic faculty, French and social media, Prague 2001- 2004
ARTISTIC EXPERIENCE
https://www.bohemiancristalinstrument.com
international touring and exhibitions, grants, scholarships and art residencies
TEACHING EXPERIENCE
Workshops and lecture with Bohemian Cristal Instrument internationally 2017 on
Awarded VIP Gluck Fellowship at University California Riverside for workshop Crystal Playground for kids from underserved communities 2017
Teaching Assistant, course Popular Music of the World, leading of discussion sessions fall 2016
Graduate seminar Current topics in Ethnomusicology, Department of Social Anthropology, Charles University, Prague winter and spring 2015
Workshop leader, Electronic Playground for Instant Acts Against Rasism and Violence 2013
tour of 20 selected international artists in forty high schools and prisons in culturally underserved parts of Germany
JOURNALISTIC EXPERIENCE
Host of own radio show Tearoom with KnofLenk, the Czech National Radio 3, 2010 - 2015
Music editor for national czech newspapers Lidove noviny 2010 - 2012
Music editor for magazine Respekt 2009/2010
Script editor and reporteur of Musicblock and Kosmopolis, Czech TV 2008 -2009
Music editor of overground magazine ŽIVEL 2009
Music editor in magazine Rock and Pop, own pages XeLectronic 2005 - 2007
SELECTED PAPERS and PRESENTATIONS
„ Art As and Applied Philosophy of Life: Aspects of commodification and audience participation in the Baschet Brothers’s Work “ World Music Colloquium, Mexico City, Universidad de Mexico, 2023
„ Art As and Applied Philosophy of Life: Aspects of commodification and audience participation in the Baschet Brothers’s Work “ World Music Colloquium, festival in Náměšť Nad Oslavou, CZ, 2016
“TEDx Talk/Performance” with Bohemian Cristal Instrument, University of California Riverside, April 2016
“Glass Spilled Out From The Broken Bath” performance, Conference Music And Labor, University of Toronto, 2016
“Glass Spilled Out From The Broken Bath” performance, Conference Locations And Dislocations, Rider University, Princeton, 2016
“From Favelas To Top Charts: Commodification of Brazilian Genre Favela Funk Through One Sample Story”, SEMSCHC Conference UCLA, Los Angeles 2016
„Music of Favela Funk as a new source of Power and Pride for Favelados“ Conference on Phenomenon of Power and Inequality, University of Social and Economic Science, Bratislava, Slovakia, 2014
„My Art Is a Big Apology of a White Man Living in a Privilege World”, article and interview with new media artist Jeremy Bailey, published in new media magazine Digicult, Italy, 2012
„Performative Aspect of the Breakcore Music Genre“ World Music Colloquium, festival in Náměšť Nad Oslavou, CZ, 2012
GRANTS, SCHOLARSHIPS, RESIDENCIES
Emerging Producer of Europe = Czech Wave 2026
ISEA 2023, concept of the upcoming music video NEW NATURE selected for presentation from 1600 applications.
TEDx USA, 2017
Various grants by SoundCzech (export of the Czech music) and Ministry of Culture of the Czech Republic , 2015 and on
ASEF Grant – traveling to perform in Indonesia at SETI conference and festival, 2018
OSA (Author's Right Organization) „Talent“ Scholarship, debut EP UNICODE by ‘Bohemian
Cristal Instrument’, June 2018
VIP Gluck Fellowship at UCR – workshops with Bohemian Cristal Instrument, 2016 - 2017
City of Pardubice Grant, 2015
OSA (Author's Right Organization) „Talent“ Scholarship, funding of the new ‘My Name Is Ann’ music video, June 2015
Fond of Mobility Grant, Faculty of Humanities, Visiting Graduate researcher at UCLA, Sept 2013
Prvouk Grant, Visiting Graduate researcher at UCLA, Oct 2013
OSA (Author's Right Organization) „Talent“ Scholarship, funding for a study stay at UCLA, Oct 2013
City of Prague Grant, project „This Is Not A Really Pleasant Sound“, Sept 2012
Specific Research Grant, ethnographic research of a Breakcore genre in Miami, Nov 2010
Youth in Action grant, audiovisual project/experimental documentary „Glass Spilled Out of the Broken Bathtub“, 2010
Pepinnieres pour les jeunnes artists, Art Residency, Huesca, Spain, 2007
City of Prague Grant, a „Reciclatge Tour“ My Name Is Ann!, Sept 2006
COMPUTER SKILLS and LANGUAGES
Music Programs: Ableton Live, Max MSP, Max For Live, Sibelius
English - very good - speaking and writing
French – good – speaking and writing
Spanish – medium level – speaking and writing
Czech – native language