Mil Pássaros (1000 Birds) is an installation based on a shared process. The “countless hands” of children and adults gave rise to birds, which were later brought together in a visual and sound “murmuration”, tuning in to the desire for a better world. These paper birds, or orizurus, were made using the art of origami, and in Japanese culture they are a symbol of peace and happiness. It is also said that after making a thousand orizurus, wishes come true.
For more than 20 years, Companhia de Música Teatral (CMT) has been exploring the possibility of finding, in Music, ways of relating to the world. Music is an infinite universe: it is fruition, expression, communication, it is art, tool, element of identity and human development, and much more.
Mil Pássaros (1000 Birds) is an installation based on a shared process. The “countless hands” of children and adults gave rise to birds, which were later brought together in a visual and sound “murmuration”, tuning into the desire for a better world. These paper birds, or orizurus, were made using the art of origami, and in Japanese culture they are a symbol of peace and happiness. It is also said that after making a thousand orizurus, wishes come true.
Mil Pássaros is the culmination of work that started in 2019, involving schools and kindergartens, museums, libraries and families as part of Lisbon European Green Capital 2020, but due to the pandemic lockdowns only came to light in October 2021. The work draws attention to the fragility of the world we live in and the need to care for the environment. It allows imagination to take flight. It reveals the strength and beauty of a collective will based on the power of small gestures. It fosters listening, contemplation and the desire to build a better world.
After having been a “night light” in a year marked by the pandemic, in which online approaches allowed to maintain the connection with those involved, the installation reappeared in October 2021. It has been transformed through a site-specific dialogue with the magnificent organisms at Estufa Quente, the giant hot house that is part of the Estufa Fria gardens in Lisbon. This new bio-poetic ecosystem is also a testament to the “enormous desire for hope in these uncertain times”.
Please highlight how the project can be exemplary in this context
Two main goals guide our project: 1) To increase awareness of climate emergency; 2) To increase awareness of empathic emergencies. These goals are at the core of the sustainability concept (meeting our own needs without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own).
The proposal of the project is: let’s listen to the birds; let’s evoke birds soundscape while we do an “orizuru” and we think of a collective wish for a better world. Through this invitation each individual is committed to his/her own role caring for the planet. Then, all the individuals are linked in a shared responsibility by making a collective wish.
The installation Mil Pássaros (1000 Birds) is the result of the involvement of children, teachers, educators and families that have accepted that invitation and who participated in former events of the project. So, each “orizuru” that is presented in the final Installation symbolizes a lived process towards care: care to the planet, care towards each other. Each one that visits the installation admires the beauty of a collective will.
The project has the potential to be exemplary: people of all ages and all conditions can be invited to listen to nature and its birds; people of all ages can be invited to listen to their own “soul bird” being part of a collective wish. So, singularity and collectivity can coexist in a peaceful way. The project can be expanded and replicated in several unique contexts preserving the coexistence of those features.
Please highlight how the project can be exemplary in this context
For aesthetics and quality of experience assessment please see the films in vimeo
https://vimeo.com/640070701
https://vimeo.com/518798647
The aesthetics and quality of experience was met through immersive training of the core team and short and online training of other adult participants. The project can be exemplary in this context because documentation is available and three kind of training related with Thousand Birds are also available (see, for example i.Lab Mil Pássaros - Arts for Childhood Immersive Training)
https://musicateatral.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/FolhetoOnline_iLab_MilPassaros_v2.pdf
Please highlight how the project can be exemplary in this context
The year 2020 was marked by a dramatic turnaround in the “order of things”: one of the most elementary “organisms” on the Planet profoundly transformed the way we live (and die) and put the will, ingenuity, determination , imagination and creativity of the entire human species to the test. The fragility of our existence, the need to cooperate and build bonds became evident. The need to dream and believe that it is possible to build a better world. In the midst of the pandemic crisis, CMT sought and found several ways to continue the projects in which it was involved, namely by experimenting with the use of digital tools. We adapted to new circumstances, developed experiences that sought new strategies that would allow us to explore the ideas that we were working on.
We maintained the bonds that we had created with communities, artists and audiences. Birds were always at the “front line” of this “resistance”: a first “display of non-resignation” was the publication, in the early days of confinement, of a video entitled “Voar” that invited the symbolic act of building and sharing an “orizuru ”.
The project Mil Pássaros initially planned for Lisbon European Green Capital 2020 was also adapted to the new circumstances and the installation that was planned had a first version in December 2020 at Loja da e-Nova, in Zoom and on Youtube, looking for ways to overcome the limitations imposed by the restriction of physical proximity between people. A second version took place at Estufa Fria, in Lisbon, in October 2021, at a time when it was once again possible to organize events in public spaces.
Please highlight how this approach can be exemplary
Estufa Fria is an iconic green space in Lisbon and the generic name for a set of three different greenhouses that bring together plant species from different parts of the world. There are three environments with very different conditions of light, temperature and humidity and the plants in each one of them reflect the diversity of the plant kingdom in areas as diverse as China, Australia, Mexico, Peru, Brazil, Antilles or the Korean Peninsula. In the Estufa Fria live more than 300 species from various continents, some of which are in decline or in danger of extinction in their natural environments.
Along the various spaces there are water lines, small lakes and waterfalls, statuary works and garden benches. For the visitor, alone or in groups, the Estufa Fria is a space of connection with plant life (and not only that, because birds are also part of what you see and hear), inviting to discover but also to pause and enjoy contemplation.
The idea of the installation Mil Pássaros is that it develops from a process of sharing. An “innumerable hand” of children and adults makes birds grow at their fingertips, which then join in visual and sound “murmuration” in tune with the desire for a better world. The 1000 birds were distributed over around 60 sculptural elements and the sound was distributed over 6 points of the Estufa Quente (autonomous and independent loudspeakers with sound compositions where the recorded sound of “real” birds coexisted with the sound of “cyber -birds” (generated in a computer from algorithms that allow to emulate the biophysical process underlying the production of sound by birds), and synthesizers.
The installation Mil Pássaros draws attention to the fragility of the world we live in and the need to take care of the environment. It gives wings to imagination. It reveals the strength and beauty of a collective will based on the power of small gestures. It calls for listening, contemplation and the desire to build a better world.
The installation Mil Pássaros at Estufa Fria directly involved 10 museums and libraries and
42 public schools in the municipality of Lisbon
The beautiful paper birds the children brought back to school make us to believe that our objectives were met.
The installation was open to the public between 10-30 October 2022 with free entrance.
As documented by the pictures annexed the public had time to sit down and appreciate. That is also reconnecting with nature.
Please also explain the benefits that derived from their involvement.
The awareness of the community is promoted through an invitation or appeal, issued by the artists and educators who attended a training initiative, the “Manual to make a bird born”. It is a text written in a semi-poetic register that suggests to the adult (for example the father or mother) an informal activity of listening to the soundscape with the child. The search for birdsong, in a garden, park or green space, is followed by a pictorial expression of the auditory impression on a blank sheet, which is then transformed into a paper bird using the Japanese origami (“orizuru” folding technique).
Each child’s bird joins the birds of other children, at school or in the library, and the metaphor of “murmuration” is explored (the possibility of “collective flight”, ordered by sensitivity to the presence of the other) building “flocks” of “orizurus” that fill with “colorful life” a basic sculptural object that is made available to the school or library. Thus, the community collectively builds a “satellite” installation (Primeiros Pássaros) that inhabit the different spaces where the project takes place. This is a starting point for a set of activities / initiatives around the “universe of birds”, whether this was addressed in the training initiative and based on the support materials, or not: the topic is actual (the extinction of countless species of birds is just one of the aspects of the ecological catastrophe we are experiencing). Birds are an excellent topic for multidisciplinary “voyagess” ranging from music to biology, philosophy, painting or literature. It is expected, therefore, that the Primeiros Pássaros in the school or library can inspire multiple transversal activities, carried out by educators / teachers / educational agents or their guests, and that the construction of “orizurus”, songs, rhymes and “playful activities” experienced in training can be useful elements in the creation of more comprehensive multidisciplinary educational plans.
Global challenges have to be addressed by a collective effort. So, we have to find ways to gather people sharing a common goal. This project involved schools and kindergartens, museums, libraries and families. Families, educators, teachers and several facilitators were asked to walk in nature listening to the birds (which is a metaphor to take care of nature, to take care of inner self, to take care of the others). Then, these people should help their toddlers and children to build up their own orizuros. In each local (a school, a museum or a library) orizuros were gathered in a small installation. So, each local has created its own process and its own way to deal with the birds’ theme (finding their own local soul needs).
Besides this, each one was informed that in Japanese culture, orizuru is a symbol of peace and happiness and there is a belief that after making a thousand orizuros, wishes come true. So, everyone was informed that each local would create their own small installation as a symbol of each individual and group effort aiming to contribute for a better world. So, Mil Pássaros is the result of a shared common goal. Each local, each person is challenged to contribute for the construction of a collective installation with one thousand birds.
In a nutshell, climatic emergencies and emphatic emergencies are global challenges. The project addresses these challenges promoting this awareness in different locals (kindergardens, schools, libraries, museums) aiming to reach each person individually and aiming to tie everyone through a collective will. That’s why thereafter, each local contributes for a final installation. The message is clear: in order to face global challenges we have to stay together sharing a common wish, a collective will. We believe in micro-utopias and in the power of togetherness to amplify small gestures. By fostering listening and contemplation we draw attention to the micro-utopias of each ind
The bird-guided “crossing of uncertain territories” of recent years has shown us new possibilities (Poemário Vivo was recently presented at BICT Fest, Bangkok International Children’s Theater Festival) that we will most likely continue to explore. And the world continues to need birds, real and imaginary, that make us sensitive and show us ways of doing things. That is why it is important to shed a little light on the ideas of the Mil Pássaros constellation, even if it is a little difficult to do so since each instance of the Mil Pássaros project has had, and may have, its own characteristics. We could, eventually, speak of an ideal Mil Pássaros Project, which exists in a conceptual field and awaits the opportunity to be implemented in its entirety and sequentially according to a predetermined plan. But perhaps this is not the intrinsic nature of artistic work, or what it makes sense to do when it comes to “tuning” and assuming that “listening” is the starting point for what is built. Dialogue with what exists (people, spaces) is a necessary condition to make sense of ideas.
Please provide clear documentation, communication of methodology and principles in this context.
CMT coined the term “development of artistic-educational constellations” to refer to an innovative work model, which seeks to articulate artistic creation and fruition, training and education, community involvement, reflection and communication of processes and results. The idea of “constellation” is a poetic but also analytical and objective look at an expanding system, with “bodies” of different nature, interacting with each other through “fields” of an aesthetic or conceptual nature.
The installation Mil Pássaros is part of a homonym constellation that also includes training (for artists, educators, parents), two performances (Orizuro and PaPI-Opus 8), and a conference. All these can be recombined or reprogrammed in various ways, in response to specific circumstances and contexts, giving rise to different Mil Pássaros projects that could have different characteristics depending on the timing, community or place where they would be implemented.
It has had broad local, national and international repercussions, responding in a pragmatic way to some of the questions that are debated about the role of artists, art and educational services in their relationship with education, the school and the community.
We had experiences with Brazil (SESC - Social Service of Commerce, São Paulo) and Thailand (BICT Festival).
Throughout 2022-2024 the possibility of expanding the international reach of this type of training should be created, namely through collaboration on an Erasmus+ project with Belgian, Danish, Dutch and Norwegian partners.
https://www.bictfest.com (see 2021 film)
https://musicateatral.com/en/encontro/z-lab-mil-passaros-arts-for-childhood-online-training/
https://vimeo.com/640070701
https://vimeo.com/518798647
@Companhia de Música Teatral, 2021
Content licensed to the European Union.