Céleste Boursier-Mougenot | From Here to Ear

In a Scandinavian landscape of sand and lyme grass, 88 zebra finches play experimental compositions on 17 electric guitars and basses.
With the installation "From Here to Ear" v. 21, the French artist and composer Céleste Boursier-Mougenot has transformed CC’s 600 m2 hall into a giant aviary where 44 zebra finch couples will reside throughout the winter. Flying around freely, the birds will settle on the strings of the instruments as if they were wires between city roofs or branches of a tree. The chirping of the finches and the sounds they make as their beaks and claws connect physically with the electric instruments ll the hall with ambient music. A live concert with no beginning or end.
In from here to ear v. 21 we are invited to enter the finches’ territory; a light and poetic soundscape, complete with labyrinthine pathways that we can explore as we witness how the finches gather on the strings, drink from upside-down cymbals in the sand and nest in hanging clusters. The installation offers an immersive experience that stimulates all our senses. Our movements become part of the work, equally important as the finches’ reactions, because our presence in the room affects the birds, prompting constant changes to the unpredictable music.
Céleste Boursier-Mougenot (b. 1961) lives and works in Sète, France. Having been a composer with the French avant-garde theatre Pascal Rambert for ten years, he began working with installation art in the mid-1990s, incorporating sounds and stage craft from the realm of theatre in his art. Boursier-Mougenot has presented solo exhibitions at prominent venues such as Musée des Beaux-Arts de Montréal in Montréal, Palais de Tokyo in Paris and the Barbican Art Gallery in London. In 2015 he represented France at the Venice Biennale.
Céleste Boursier-Mougenot | filmed by Out of Sync | Cph Nov 2016
On view | Nov 25 2016-Mar 5 2017
Artworks courtesy | Céleste Boursier-Mougenot | CC
Text | Copenhagen Contemporary
© Out of Sync 2017

[@GettingHyphy]

feel lucky to have seen this in person. such a cool idea and atmosphere to be immersed in

[@RCAvhstape]

2:20 a tuner clipped onto the guitar, for the birds, you know, in case they want to tune it.

[@poplar1376]

Man i need a whole record of this

[@mateuszt6498]

The bird chilling out on the Thunderbird at 2:23 cracks me up every time.

[@davidjameschamberlain]

Typical bass player sleepin on the job

[@D_ytAcct]

Oh this is lovely

[@chrisdooks5903]

Saw this in Nantes yesterday and it was incredible

[@zebredpooding]

Awwww they are so cute. ☺️

[@youtoviewmusic6917]

Awesome

[@dormaettu302]

I really like this dude

[@BrunoG03-Vichy]

Ees a wok een progress!,!,,! 🤣 Only The French , but I love it.

[@luyaoliu3797]

cool

[@colpindidier5310]

2706 DES GUITARES POUR PERCHOIRS…
Une musique aléatoire
Sur un chemin qui ne l’est pas
Vient nous offrir un répertoire
L’étonnement nous tend les bras…
Des mandarins d’un coup de patte
- Experience à la Hendrix -
Dans un réel qui se dilate
Chantent le clair autant que Nyx…
L’instinct les pousse et les dirige
Dormant au nid puis s’envolant
Puis se posant pour un prodige
Où le son va batifolant…
Où le son va dans l’innocence
De ces oiseaux de leurs couleurs
Pour un light-show nu sans défense
Privant de voix les beaux-parleurs…
Dans un émoi qui le déroute
Le spectateur est en 3D
Une splendeur soudain l’envoûte
- Lui qui n’avait rien demandé -…
L’Art est ici tout sauf farouche
Comme un écho d’Ummagumma
De Sysyphus ou de sa mouche
Il s’affranchit de tout format…
L’Art constamment doit nous surprendre
Nous émouvoir - brisant le temps -
C’est un bonheur qu’il sait répandre
Dans des instants tous éclatants…
L’Art est alors aussi céleste
L’oiseau se mute en ménestrel
Par la grandeur qu’il manifeste
Il se révèle intemporel…
Fait générateur :
Visite à Nantes en septembre 18 d’une exposition abritant la volière de Céleste Boursier-Mougenot
Nota : Ummagumma est nom du 4° album des Pink Floyd (1969).
Les parties 2 et 3 du titre Sysyphus me sont spontanément venues à l’esprit en visitant cette exposition.
Le vol d’une mouche est intégré au morceau Grantchester meadows.
COLPIN Didier

[@richardd9938]

I'm an arts student, and I wanna ask everyone hear, do people think that is animal experimentation disguised as art? I mean a part of me finds the whole piece really beautiful and inspiring, but I can't help feeling its one of many examples where animals are just taken by humans and put into their exhibition space, with no consent or wilful collaboration from the animals. Genuinely would like to hear people's thoughts on this :)

[@jzocchio]

I think it's safe to say that in a country with serious official/constitutional environmental regulation it's not going to be simple for a similarly serious institution in collaboration with an artist to use animals in an installation, and that's why they'll most likely be fully secure and correct regarding the creatures. This is generally a faux-polemic that will always pop up when artists 'dare' to dialogue with this modern tradition (of dealing with animals in art).
One hysterical example of this is the São Paulo Art Biennial of 2010, when there was a big crowd backlash against an installation (called "Bandeira Branca") that had two captive-bred vultures live together with sand sculptures inside a huge span characteristic of the building (somewhat similar to the one in the Guggenheim NY). Ignoring any art-related discussion that could come from the initial tension, some groups protested - "free the birds" -, broke into the grades, depredated the sculptures, attacked the artist, etc. The preoccupation just could have been legitimate if the work hadn't been already fully conformed to federal environmental law, authorized, and realized with free access by the specialists from the national institute of natural resources during the construction and exhibition of the work. The birds, captive-bred, were actually enjoying a space larger than the one from which they were commissioned, and were continuously monitored and cared by the experts - for less than one week, until the "activist" pressure forced a populist early closing of the installation.

[@davidjameschamberlain]

Jesus them strings chonky. These finches djent

[@steveoath]

New radiohead album? ? ?

[@midinerd]

close your eyes visualize andy kaufman

[@kathynordskog5460]

That's cold😂I was thinking how beautiful the French language sounds 💙🐦🌿

[@_Ramen-Vac_]

get a fantastic jazz drummer in there and see what the birds play along...

[@AbdiYohan]

Not enough views on this at all...