Borys Słowikowski is an artist, educator, and psychologist from Poznań, based in Berlin. His main instruments are modern Levantine frame drums, which he has studied under the guidance of Zohar Fresco since 2010. He has also studied from i.a. Yshai Afterman, Sabina Giannatou, Adam Strug, Bijan Chemirani, Adama Drame, Efren Lopez. An important field of his education, influencing both his teaching and art, are somatic practices (BMC, Feldenkrais, mindfullness training) and movement improvisation, which he’s studied from i.a. Kirstie Simson, Sigal Zouk, Ania Nowicka, Magda Meindl, Andrew Morrish, Alice Chauchat.

Around 2013 Maciej Filipczuk (Radical Polish Ansambl) introduced Borys to the obscure realm of unstylized Polish peasant music, which shook the very core of his musicality and opened new perspectives on the topics of groove, improvisation, composition and the embodiment of knowledge. At the same time, he begun his free-improvisation explorations. The two currents – radical tradition and atonal experimentation – became two forces completing and fuelling each other from then on. In 2017 Borys co-founded and conducted the Poznan Improvising Orchestra; as much a musical project as a social one, it stemmed both from his interest in atonal music and in non-verbal forms of organising a creative group process.

Concurrently, since 2011 he regularly travelled to Greece and Cyprus to study musical traditions and became proficient in the Greek language.

Since 2021 Borys is researching Moroccan music(s), while studying the local Darija dialect, and organizes workshops in Morocco for his students, collaborating with his teachers there (incl. Kasbah Houariyat and Ayoub El Ayady). Together with Hicham Ounamir they instigated Izouran ⵉⵣⵓⵔⴰⵏ, an experimental project based in Moroccan Amazigh traditions.

Borys is a member of Greek music ensemble Farmagia and Arabic-Jewish Kayan Project. He has also worked with i.a. Carlos Gutierrez Quiroga from Native Instruments Experimental Orchestra, David Votre Chazam, Raquy Danziger, Polyphonia Berlin Choir, Piotr Melech, and Berlin Soundpainting Orchestra. As a sound designer and performer, he works with choreographers and dance collectives.

Since 2014 he has been teaching levantine frame drums, eventually founding Berlin Frame Drum School in 2017.  Being an educator is an important part of his artistic practice – allowing him to research in-depth his musical material and creative tools as well as role of music for individual and social health.

As a curator he organized an independent community-and-arts venue Centrum Amarant in Poznań, and co-produced Polish-German residency program Residents//Mieszkancy.