Céleste Boursier-Mougenot: New commission for The Curve
till 23.05.2010
the Curve at Barbican Centre
When I first saw the youtube clip below posted by Barbican Centre on its twitter, I have already foreseen this act by human-and-nature would be a huge success. Judging from the long queue I witnessed every time I visited the Barbican Centre in the past few weeks, I can only take the courage to visit on a weekday afternoon when the crowd after office hours and the family over the weekend are largely absent.
Once you are inside the gallery, you would understand why the queue is so long outside. Since there are only some 20-30 birds inside, the gallery has limited visitor figure to 25 at any time only. And nobody would want to just have a glimpse and walk away, as the birds are too cute and have endless variety on their movements you would keep on staring at them once you get there.
The birds are not afraid of men. They would jump onto your shoes, your handbags, and even somebody's head (that boy's hair is a bit fluffy like a bird's nest LOL). They also have a very eye-catching yet harmonious colour palette on their bodies, while the musical instruments selected by the artists are mostly black and white in colour to make a sharp contrast (except the golden metallic cymbals). They fool around freely in the venue as if kids having fun in the school playground.
Judging from the enthusiastic response of the public, I do hope that a zoo would invite the artist to collaborate and transplant this wonderful idea to a permanent display.
Further Readings -
Official page in Barbican website
Artist of the week #78: Céleste Boursier-Mougenot by Skye Sherwin at the Guardian (with audio clips)
Introduction of the artist from Frenchculture.org