In this sound installation by the artist Celeste Boucher-Mujn, the birds spread their wings and land lightly on the strings of a guitar, playing a beautiful and unplanned piece of music. The curtain separates the different areas of the exhibition, creating a garden where the birds can roam freely. From the moment they pass through the curtain, the visitors become guests. They are guided by the gritty floor and follow a set route.
“I have always believed that we are here not just to watch the birds fly around the grounds. Rather, we can feel that this is a place where they belong and that people are invited here as guests.”
Through his work, Celeste offers the viewer a chance to ‘be a guest’. He constructs an ecological world that allows people to imagine a ‘world after humans’. But he does not simply want to discuss the existence of non-human beings, but to bring humans back into the midst of all things, to understand the concept of nature, and to consider how to co-exist with the artificiality of nature.
