Bird Song

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Project Introduction: Bird song was created through a symbolic triangulation of observations and interactions - sighting green parrots in Barcelona’s city parks (that originally came from South America to Europe with people and plants in the vessels of colonisers); shared conversations with migrant women who struggle for legal rights to live in Barcelona, Europe; and intimate video interviews of women active in the syndicate of care workers in Barcelona. 

 

Bird song is a storytelling art piece crafted by Sara’s exploration of  the stories and struggles of migrant women. It is composed through a narrative of small photos, video pieces and a song that she composed and sang to give voice to the invisible emotional realms of those brave women in their struggle to live and take care.

 

Bird song was created during a joint artist residency between February - March 2022 at the La Bonne studios with Sara Baga (Portugal), Kia Redman (Barbados) and Nicola Singh (UK). La Bonne, a partner on the CONTESTED DESIRES programme, is based in Barcelona. The residency followed ‘Colonialism and Gender’, the final capacity building workshop of the CONTESTED DESIRES programme that reflected on archives and archivism in relation to gender, race and identity, viewing them in new ways, in particular from a critical decolonial feminist perspective. This brought into focus absence and stories that are systematically silenced in official narratives.

 

Bird song is best experienced on a computer screen.

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Biography: Sara Baga is an artist from Portugal who forges her work through a poetic and symbolic gaze, while keeping it rooted in human ecology. She works across participatory arts, production - with award winning films - and developing collaborations in the performative arts. Her work with grassroots movements has seen her deepen her connection to the land and campaign for the environment, food sovereignty and indigenous rights.

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View Bird Song  here: