On Selection of the programme BIRDS ON PERIPHERIES

Biologists posit that the birds that fly on the periphery of a migratory flock are the ones that guide the entire group to turn; that the birds on the margins, those most exposed to the world, are the ones that trigger change. Those at the centre of the flock, at the heart of the system, totally blind to the world around them, are powerless. This is a testament to the theory that it is the people who find themselves at the forefront of life’s greatest turbulences and tumultuous currents that are responsible for hewing, moulding, and changing our understanding of reality.

In a lengthy process involving countless complicated calculations across 15 time zones to schedule Zoom meetings, the invited group of co-curators comprising Gabriel Yépez Rivera (Mexico), Virginie Dupray (Portugal), Aurélien Zouki und Éric Deniaud (Lebanon), June Tan (Malaysia), Satoko Tsurudome und Sankar Venkateswaran (India) agreed on the task of selecting and inviting artists whose work or trajectories they felt closest to; those artists whose artworks and creative practices could benefit the most from this one brief moment of exposure during the cold autumn of a Bavarian city at the end of a festival. The result is a series of five productions spanning a wide range of genres, from dance to ritual to poetry performance. The productions will be shown on the last weekend of the festival (31. October – 1. November) at venues in the Kreativquartier, accompanied by a programme of artist talks and discussions.

Salman Rushdie writes that ‘a poet’s work is to name the unnameable, to point at frauds, to take sides, start arguments, shape the world and stop it going to sleep’.

The work of selecting an artist for BIRDS ON PERIPHERIES is no different from taking sides for a brief moment. Each practicing artist commands their very existence through the prism of conditions into which life has thrust them. Overwhelmingly often, these conditions are catastrophic and slippery, the histories dark and in many cases untold and insidiously normalised. The stark imagery that is projected within these worlds is embossed by shadows and pierced with silent screams into the yawning chasm of an uncaring world. A forgetful world.

Much like previous future-facing iterations of this segment in the festival programme where, in 2021, we presented SERIES X and MAABARA EXCHANGE THEATRE, with a cohort of young Africa based artists. In 2023, we installed NOTHING TO DECLARE, which involved a deeper excavation of the artistic landscape to support the work of even newer makers of theatre, performance, and dance. With this edition, BIRDS ON PERIPHERIES invites eight co-curators to reach into their own toolbox and select the sharpest tool with which to carve and shape the future.
 

Boyzie Cekwana is a choreographer, producer and co-curator of SPIELART Festival Munich. He has worked as a teacher, performer, and choreographer across South and North America, Europe, the Middle East, Asia and Africa. He was artistic director for two editions of the Jomba Dance Experience, a festival based in Durban, and curated projects for artists in the Democratic Republic of Congo and South Africa. He now runs an independent space for artistic residencies in Gqeberha, Eastern Cape, South Africa. In 2023, he co-curated the SPIELART Festival Munich (program NOTHING TO DECLARE).