What Birds Say

“What Birds Say” assembles attempts to mimic bird songs in writing across 64 languages, compiled from dialogues with different native speakers. Side by side, these abstract word sequences from around the world unfold a poetry of their own – clumsy and charming at once, saying less about birds than about our longing to grasp the world in language. A dadaistic chorus of onomatopoeia that may connect us all to singing birds.

For conversations and support during the research, the artist would like to thank Elene Abashidze, Babak Afrassiabi, Gunta Akmeņkalne, Mazen Al Ashkar, Amurhuu, Isfrid Angard Siljehaug, Enikő Bajusz, Warren Bartolo, Markus Biechele, Natália Blahová, Alexander Cabeza Trigg, Hatice Özgür Cengiz, Neeraj Chatterji, Egidija Čiricaitė, Angelo Custodio, Roberto Dagnino, Ana Dimova, Angelika Eder, Tomas Ermin, Nihaal Faizal, Tarak Foaos, Carlijn Fransen, Christina Frankenberg, Maja Frateva, Šimon Geist, Katharina Görgen, Kirsten Hackenbroch, Victor Homov, Dilorom Ismatillaeva, Neeraj Kadamboor, Steffen Kaupp, Markus Kedziora, Vytautas Kumža, Scholpan Kysaibaewa, Anastasia Leonova, Youvalle Levy, Thomas Lier, Tamara Maggi, Takuto Mashimo, James McKerral, Konrad Miller, Adrien Missika, Alexandra Mittler, Nwa Najmldin, Rada Nastai, David Ngui, Ragnar Helgi Olafsson, Emeka Okereke, Pao-Hui Oßwald-Huang, Kirsten Palz, Seralathan Paneerselvam, Jaehun Park, Kristine Petrušić, Dijana Prljic, Violeta Prodanović, Elisabeth Rafstedt, Anjali Raturi, Januar Rianto, Angeles Rojas, Vida Rucli, Walter Sabiel, Antonio Salsano, Kannikar Saengsuwan, Anna Schanowski, Anne Schönhagen, Surabhi Shingarey, Aljaž Škrlep, Anja Snellman, Alcaeus Spyrou, Friederike van Stephaudt, Raji Sunderkrishnan, Katja Surkova, Uma Tadwalkar, Yonas Tarekegn, Giorgos Tsiongas, Martijn in ‘t Veld, Evgeny Vitkovskiy, Simone Voigt, Hannah Willibald, Michelle Wong, Ulrike Würz, Bjanka Zafirovska and Amira Zvizdic.