Excerpt from the video
Installation View, Parrot Terristories, TA T, Tieranatomisches Theater, Humboldt University, Berlin
Filmed in the archives of the scientific collection of the Royal Museum of Central Africa Tervuren. Funded by Kunststiftung NRW, Capital Cultural Fund Berlin, Academy of Media Arts Cologne.
Direction: Hörner/Antlfinger
Camera: Rikisaburo Sato
Steadycam: Mathias Antlfinger
Sound recording: Sunjha Kim
Geophone recording: Ute Hörner
Script: Ute Hörner
Voice Kate: Dervishi
Editing: Sunjha Kim
Sound Design: Pascal Dreier
Color Grading: Rikisaburo Sato
Translation: Lisa James
For their kind support and the trustful collaboration, we thank Annelore Nackaerts – Manager of the bird collection and Christine Bluard – Curator and project manager of artistic development at the Royal Museum of Central Africa Tervuren.
For inspiring joint research and collaboration in the field of Intuitive Interspecies Communication, we thank Prof. Vanessa Wijngaarden, University of Johannesburg and University of Liège.
We would like to extend our gratitude to the initiators of this project, the African grey parrots, for the time they have graciously spent with us and for all that they have shared.
The Sky is Our Sea and the Trees are Our Land
In search of the ancestors of their deceased companion Karl, Hörner/Antlfinger travel to the natural history collection of the Musée Royal de l’Afrique Centrale in Tervuren. The collection holds around 10 million animals – among them 113 grey parrots – gathered from the colonial era through to the 1980s. Stored in drawers and labelled, they have become “objects”, governed and managed by science. Hörner/Antlfinger visit the birds over several years in order to tell their story differently from the way the museum narrative dictates: not as detached specimens of a species, but as individuals with agency. Upon learning that the parrots do not wish to remain hidden in drawers, but want to be seen in order to have impact, Hörner/Antlfinger decide to accept this task. They begin to create filmic portraits of the birds, rendering each body visible in its individuality – giving future viewers the opportunity to spend time with them, and with their spirits. On this journey into an altered state of consciousness, the birds begin to speak.
2024 Video, 4K, 63:46 min, colour, sound
Installation – Videobox 257 x 233 x 80 cm.
