What if music isn’t played, but created?
Birds hover above your head, connected by red strings, moving gently through the air. Each little bird is an instrument: a whistle, a bellows, a sound. You don’t need to be able to read music. You don’t need to know anything about music. You simply pick up a bird and blow.
153 Returning Birds is an immersive sound installation by the Chinese artist Ban Lei, in which the audience itself is the composer. The 153 sculptures fill the space with an organic landscape of sounds and chance. They come in three sizes, like three generations: grandparents, parents and children. When strangers hold each other’s red thread, something unexpected happens: a gesture of connection, a smile, a shared sound.
The work has already travelled to various locations across Europe, creating the same effect everywhere: people playing together, laughing and meeting one another through music that nobody planned. Now it is Pelt’s turn. No electricity, no screen, no instructions. Just wood, paper, breath and people.
Come and play. The birds are waiting.
credits
concept & installation Ban Lei