Commissioned by | CBK Groningen (Centrum Beeldende Kunst)
Thanks to | Wout Veldstra Urban ecologist Groningen
Case | Artwork in public space
The Noorderzon Performing Arts Festival is an ever growing cutting-edge international art festival and summer fest. For a view days of the year the normally so tranquilent character of the Noorderplantsoen park is transformed and buzzing with artistic activity.
The Noorderplantsoen is an old English style park with lots of shrubbery and old trees, just the type of park city wildlife likes to use as a safe haven. In the park live over forty species of birds. During the festival the birds seek refuge elsewhere. Only the geese stay, in Groningen city geese are really street wise. We wanted to illustrate the absence of the flying inhabitants of the park during the festival and urban ecologist Wout Veldstra helped us identify forty-one bird species. We made outlines of these birds to ‘places them back in the park’. Because the outlines where made from mirroring material festival visitors could sometimes suddenly see them through a reflection. In the dark you could see the lights reflected in the rather large birds that sometimes appeared. Speaking of the dark, Veldstra also mentioned that a particular flying animal does not leave the park; bats enjoy eating the moths that are attracted to all the lights.
