Og vi er mange Og vi er ingen Mycelium er ingenting Mycelium er et mellemværende Mycelium er det forhold, at vi er forbundet. Som alt andet er forbundet Som er det naturen er Når den ikke er andet end det forhold at alt er Og derfor ikke er noget Ingen ting Intet produkt Et tv, en bil, en telefon, et feriefoto, en prostitueret, en livsstil, en svinekotelet
Dette er et åndedrag Og vi er natur Når naturen ikke er noget Når naturen ikke er noget vier i, men noget vi eraf Og vi er miljøet Når miljøet ikke er noget der omgiver os, men noget der gennemtrænger os. Som et åndedræt, en kniv Som manglende drikkevand eller stigende oliepriser Som fraværet af en afdød art Som hjertets forhold til lungerne Og lungernes forhold til nyrerne Og nyrernes forhold til stenene Og stenenes forhold til stjernerne Og stjernernes forhold til planterne Og planternes forhold til olien Og oliens forhold til maskinerne Og maskinernes forhold til kapitalen Og kapitalens forhold til krigen Og krigens forhold til døden Og dødens forhold til mulden Og muldens forhold til myceliet
Dette er et åndedrag Og myceliet spreder sig i mulden Som det spreder sig i døden I krigen, kapitalen, maskinerne, olien Planterne, stjernerne, stenene, nyrerne Lungerne, hjertet Og omsætter døden til liv I alle ting, som var de ingen ting Det spreder sig tager til Udvider sig Danner kreds Skyder sine svampe over jorden Som hekseringe, hvor der blev danset Som dansepest og glædesråb Som hellige rum, der aldrig har kendt til guder Men som ene og alene hylder solen Den sol der dør Der nærer alt liv på jorden. Der omsættes af planterne Der gør luften åndbar Der fortæres af dyret Der fortæres af andre dyr Der lagres i olien Der smører maskinerne Der udødeliggøres i plastikken og diamanten Som et udødeligt løfte om flere ting
Dette er et åndedrag Og solen høstes forskelligt Den akkumuleres på få hænder Vi er ikke i samme båd De slikker sol på en yacht De slikker sol i Dubai De slikker sol på vesterbro De slikker sol på safari Vi er ikke i samme båd De sveder sol De sveder blod De sveder plastik De sveder Iphones De sveder porno Og vi slikker salte solkroppe tør for næring Vi høster olie, blod og børn Vi høster børn Og de har ikke samme farve, køn og indkomst Og det Gaias fødselsmerter Der adskiller himlen og jorden Solen og planeten Men naturen er ikke Gaia Naturen er Shiva Der høster hoveder og drikker blod Men naturen er ikke Shiva Naturen er Lego, Nestle og Apple The stuff that dreams are made of Pagt med naturen er for de privilegerede Vi kan ikke redde naturen Vi skal ikke redde naturen Måske skal den redde os Men det vil sige, at vi skal redde os selv Fra os selv For Gaia vil omfavne dig Shiva vil hugge dit hoved af Og solen giver liv Uden forventning om modregning Uden ønske om gengæld Uden interesse i hvordan vi forvalter det
Solen vil skide på kapitalismen Der alene kan akkumulere der lider af forstoppelse der derfor udelukkende skider monumenter Solen vil skide på asketen Hvis reaktion på forstoppelsen er fornægtelse
Og solen vil skide på dig Som naturen vil skide på dig Som blomsterne vil skide på dig Så skid som solen På kapitalismen På Vareliggørelsen På nytteværdi På markedsværdi På friværdi På værdi Stick it where the sun doesn’t shine Og skid som solen Men skid en frugtbar mødding Skid som solen giver liv uden modregning Generøst og ødselt Som gaven der giver sig selv I dansen I glæden I latteren I erotikken I fødslen I protesten I en radikal omfordeling uden modregning
Dette er et åndedrag Vi står her, som mycelium Fordi vi ikke er mycelium Fordi mycelium er ikke noget man kan være Fordi det er et mellemværende Der ikke stopper ved dig og mig og os Der ikke stopper med os og jorden og solen og mælkevejen og intet Fordi naturen blot er det forhold at den er Fordi miljøet er det, at det gennemtrænger os Som en kniv, som den sjette massedød, som smeltende iskapper, som klimaflygtninge og dollargrin Mycelium er udelukkende Et fælles åndedrag, der trækker verden ind og ud
Powerful reading by Den 4. Væg and very relevant thoughts on the potential of art. Thank you so much for that.
“Becoming Bird træder helt over tærsklen med dette ritual, der markerer en nyslået pagt mellem naturen og mennesket. Jeg beundrer folk, der lider for det, de tror på, og det er ikke for lidt sagt, at Becoming Bird rækker helt ned i lidelsens afgrund. Med både audiowalk og den rituelle pagt rammer forestillingen en øm nerve og demonstrerer, at kunsten kan være langt mere end bare et tilflugtssted fra en fucked up verden. Kunsten kan og bør være et decideret konfrontationsfelt, hvor alle overflødige lag bliver skrællet af, så det eneste, som står tilbage, er, hvad det vil sige at være til. Kun ved at stille det spørgsmål kan vi som samfund ændre den måde, vi ønsker, verden er på. Men det kræver, at vi kan se hinsides os selv og forstå, at naturen er den sande evighed og altid vil være her, selv når vi som mennesker er væk.”
foto: Martin Høyer
“Becoming Bird steps fully across the threshold with this ritual, which marks a newly forged pact between nature and humankind. I admire people who suffer for what they believe in, and it is no understatement to say that Becoming Bird reaches all the way down into the abyss of suffering. Through both the audiowalk and the ritual pact, the performance strikes a tender nerve and demonstrates that art can be far more than merely a refuge from a fucked-up world. Art can and should be an outright field of confrontation, where all superfluous layers are stripped away, leaving only what it means to exist. Only by posing that question can we, as a society, change the way we want the world to be. But this requires that we are able to see beyond ourselves and understand that nature is the true eternity and will always be here, even when we as humans are gone.”
We are fucked. The climate catastrophe is already happening, and the birds warned us during the lockdown. We must form a pact with nature, say the romantics. We must sing with a wagtail, a robin, or a swallow! Or we must gargle like decapitated, headless battery hens and roll ourselves in tar and feathers. BECOMING BIRD is a performative sound work that drags us through the mire. Chirp chirp, Gaia-fuckers.
How can we establish a new pact with nature in the light of the pandemic, climate change and the demand for growth and production? The answer seems to be through sacrifice. However, sacrifice need not be ascetic. It can be an act of overflowing generosity, transgression and excess.
It is probably doomed to failure. So, yet again, we fail to reach nature! Let’s fail better.
Medvirkende PATRICK BAURICHTER, CRISTIAN VOGEL (musiker) og kunstnerkollektivet MYCELIUM Iscenesættelse og scenografi NATHALIE MELLBYE Tekst og koncept MYCELIUM Komposition og lyddesign CRISTIAN VOGEL Filmværk MELLBYE/BEHRENS
One of the most popular Google searches in the wake of COVID-19 has been variations on the question “Are birds louder now?” Therefore, Mycelium have been looking toward the birds to revive the art of augury, the art of reading birds. However, today the most prominent signs are not found in the majestic eagle, but rather in the poultry factory and the wet market. Also, to listen to the birds is to listen to the absence left by the coronavirus, the raspatory gasps of a dying race.
The spoken text is a tapestry of cut-outs, ready-mades, quotes, original poetry and prose written collectively by Mycelium.
The video is a “becoming bird” ritual, a desperate attempt to engage with nature, which involves the self-inflicted painful process of being rolled in tar and feathers.
“And the birds are getting louder” is a short film made in collaboration with Mycelium, Anja Behrens, Cristian Vogel and Nathalie Mellbye. Starring Nathalie Mellbye, Anja Behrens and Freya Emilia Behrens.
It was originally made for Pythia’s Journals during the wake of the pandemic (13.05.20-16.05.20)
It has later been picked up by additional festivals: Lift-off Network Film Festival, Miracle Film Festival
Watch the movie here:
Idé, tekst og realisering: MYCELIUM Lyddesign: CRISTIAN VOGEL Medvirkende: ANJA BEHRENS, FREYA EMILIA BEHRENS, NATHALIE MELLBYE
Additional festivals: Lift-off Network Film Festival, Miracle Film Festival
Full texted used in the movie:
AND THE BIRDS ARE GETTING LOUDER:
One of the most popular google searches in the wake of the COVID-19 has been variations on the question “Are birds louder now?” Phenomenologically, birds are louder due to less human activity in cities which makes them bolder in song and territorial approach, but we are also better able to hear them with much less noise to distract us.
Augury (or oionistike (οἰωνιστικὴ) in ancient Greek) is the art of reading birds. A divine madness, an erotic endeavour. The birds are messengers The eagle looking for prey The poultry waiting to be transported to the slaughter house The vultures circling a corpse The trash-eating seagulls The pigeons in the yard The magpie stealing shiny objects The black sun of starlings The peace carrying dove The raven that does not return The aggressive swans The parrots in the ruins after the apocalypse The canary in the mine
And the birds are getting louder
“These are the birds you are to regard as unclean and not eat because they are unclean: the eagle, the vulture, the black vulture, the red kite, any kind of black kite, any kind of raven, the horned owl, the screech owl, the gull, any kind of hawk, the little owl, the cormorant, the great owl, the white owl, the desert owl, the osprey, the stork, any kind of heron, the hoopoe and the bat.” (Leviticus 11)
And the birds are getting louder
In the Iliad, the plague strikes as birds of prey, deadly arrows and aerial assailants. A godly sneeze. Achoo (bless you) In ancient literature and philosophy, the eagle was the most majestic of signs, since it was Zeus’ favorite bird. Today the most reliable omens have come from the poultry factories. The so-called Fowl plague of 1878 is considered the beginning of the recorded history of avian influenza. The signs were clear already then.
And the birds are getting louder
The PREDICT project was launched in 2009 in response to the 2005 H5N1 “bird flu” scare. Its funding ran out in September 2019. In that period they gathered specimens from more than 10,000 bats and 2,000 other mammals. They detected about 1,200 viruses that could spread from wild animals to humans. More than 160 of them were novel coronaviruses. Reuters writes in 2020, “Piglets aborted, chickens gassed as pandemic slams meat sector”. Don’t kill the messenger.
And the birds are getting louder
“Great Understatements in History: Napoleon’s retreat from Moscow — ‘just a little stroll gone bad’ Pompeii— ‘a bit of a dust storm’ Hiroshima — ‘a bad summer heatwave’ AND Wuhan — ‘just a bad flu season’” Bolsonaro — “So what?”
And the birds are getting louder
Ritual for a community of absence:
Wash hands carefully
Sneeze into your sleeve
Keep distance – at least 4 meters
Don’t gather
Stay indoors
And the birds are getting louder
Don’t join hands across America. We are not the world. We are not the winds of change.
And the birds are getting louder
Birds are primordial erotic beings. The offspring of Eros. The plague invites erotism. Wet markets – wet dreams.
“And how are we to explain that upsurge of erotic fever among the recovered victims who, instead of escaping, stay behind, seeking out and snatching sinful pleasure from the dying or even the dead, half-crushed under the pile of corpses where chance had lodged them?” Artuad asks.
The plague invites in death and therefore erotism. The bird is but the messenger. The poultry factory a Sadean wet dream.
“It is the story of the magnificent banquet: six hundred different plates offer themselves to your appetite; are you going to eat them all? […] choose and let lie the rest without disclaiming against that rest simply because it does not have the power to please you. Consider that it will enchant someone else, and be a philosopher.”
And the birds are getting louder
The highest creation on earth is a bird
The most powerful symbol, a two-headed bird
And the birds are getting louder
Ritual of cleanly absence:
Rinse doorknobs in alcohol
Rinse buttons in alcohol
Rinse primary surfaces in alcohol
Rinse partner in alcohol
Ingest alcohol
And the birds are getting louder
WHO (Trump pulls out)
And the birds are getting louder
The American president suggests that we inject light into the body. Perhaps it should be the other way around. We should inject the body into light.
And the birds are getting louder
From the billion node thousand gender perspective of the mycelial ontology – realtime inverted – the drone strike on Bolsonaro – from the lungs of Nature into the lungs of the antagonist – unknown collateral damage – realtime inverted.
And the birds are getting louder
Religious fanatics in Iran are licking doorknobs to demonstrate their purity and trust in god.
Religious fanatics in the USA are protected because they are covered in Jesus’ Blood.
Amazon wishlist: Doorknobs and blood. Out of stock.
And the birds are getting louder
This is the Parable of the Yeast The yeast from which thy kingdom shall expand Holy yeast Stay on guard It may be the Evil one, disguised as yeast Therefore, be careful where you lay your yeast It starts small and insignificant But suddenly it grows It bursts Out of control For a long time There has been no shortage of unleavened bread
And the birds are getting louder
… we cannot gain insight into the birds’ continuous collective flight across the sky, by comparing the flight paths of every single bird. Their dance over the sky on the whims of the wind forms a body in which the individual is subject to the movements of the totality. Therefore, we cannot grasp the totality of the deed without tearing it to pieces and distancing us from it, and from a distance the totality has already escaped us. (mycelium #7)
In theatre, as in the plague, there is a kind of strange sun, an unusually bright light by which the difficult, even the impossible, suddenly appears to be our natural medium. (Artaud)
The mycelic sun is the communicative dance of the birds of the autumn sky, it is the activity and intensity of mycelium, the sums of the suns within within. (mycelium #7)
And the birds are getting louder
Ritual for injecting the body into light (for one):
Immerse yourself in light
Become sun
Photosynthesis
Become earth
Emmanete as an earthly sun
And the birds are getting louder
Ritual for injecting the body into light (for more than one):
Sing – it’s contagious.
Dance – it’s contagious.
Fuck – it’s contagious.
Laugh – it’s contagious.
Rebel – it’s contagious.
And the birds are getting louder
Doorknobs and blood Blooddoors and knobs Bloodknobs and doors
And the birds are getting louder
Pythia, púthein “to rot”, the name of the high priestess of Apollo and oracle at Delphi. The Sickly sweet smell of the body’s decomposition, Mediating the sky with chthonic earthliness, Python, after she was slain by the falcon-headed god, Nature in all its splendour, the sign of our time
And the birds are getting louder
“Do you think the end of the world is coming?”
Yes and no.
‘The pandemic is a portal’ Arundhati Roy says, “a gateway between one world and the next.”
What do you mean?
Well, birds and bears and blue waters are all returning to us, to our world, laughing at us from the other side of our windows, thankful.
April is the cruelest month Lilacs of the dead land, mixing Memory and desire, stirring Dull roots with spring rain.
After the bombings of Hamburg in 1943, nature regenerated herself within the rubble, filling the open spaces with chestnuts and lilacs. Right now, wild boars and other wildlife roam the towns of northern Italy. Gangs of starving monkeys brawl in the streets of Lopburi, Thailand, no longer fed by the tourists. Sheep, horses, and deer in the streets in Japan. Whales gliding in the waters of Marseilles.
So, do you think it is funny that the oil industry is collapsing? What’s next, you laughing when investment bankers get laid off?
Yes, actually, it is funny. After all, April is the cruelest month. “Gasoline crack of history” as Burroughs says “the last of the gallant heroes.”
Is the coronavirus itself a Green New Deal?
….
And the birds are getting louder
Amazon faces legal scrutiny over workers’ safety disease and desist Calls to evacuate Greek refugee camp disease and desist New York City nurses on Front Line call it a Suicide Mission disease and desist Amazon Indigenous tribes facing genocide disease and desist As the wealthy quaff wine in comfort; India’s poor are thrown to the wolves disease and desist If the coronavirus doesn’t kill me, hunger will disease and desist Wuhan fish market and Cargill meatpacking plant disease and desist
And the birds are getting louder
The nightingale sings for the poor and the emperor alike The nightingale escapes the cage The nightingale is forgotten for want of finer things (foese nightingales clad in diamonds, mechanic songs that can play endlessly – until the mechanics break down) The nightingale returns to ward off death with its song The nightingale reports on the sufferance of the poor to the emperor in his castle The nightingale asks but one thing: to remain a secret
And the birds are getting louder
Black blood, dark webs Black marks, wet spots Antibody Antibody
This is my blood This is my flesh
Antibody Antibody
The spider is the fly
And the birds are getting louder
05.05.2020
USA 68.934 And counting
Italy 29.079 And counting
Great Britain 28.809 And counting
Spain 25.428 And counting
France 25.204 And counting
Belgium 8.016 And counting
Brasil 7.367 And counting
Germany 6.993 And counting
Iran 6.340 And counting
Netherlands 5.098 And counting
China 4.637 And counting
Canada 4.003 And counting
Turkey 3.461 And counting
Sweden 2.769 And counting
Mexico 2.271 And counting
Schweizerland 1.784 And counting
India 1.571 And counting
Ecuador 1.569 And counting
Russia 1.451 And counting
Peru 1.344 And counting
Ireland 1.319 And counting
Portugal 1.063 And counting
Indonesia 872 And counting
Romania 827 And counting
Poland 700 And counting
Philippines 637 And counting
Austria 606 And counting
Japan 536 And counting
Denmark 493 And counting
Algeria 470 And counting
Egypt 452 And counting
Hungary 363 And counting
Colombia 358 And counting
Dominican Republic 354 And counting
Ukraine 316 And counting
Chile 275 And counting
Argentina 260 And counting
South Korea 254 And counting
Czech republic 254 And counting
Finland 246 And counting
Israel 237 And counting
Norway 215 And counting
Panama 203 And counting
Saudi-Arabia 200 And counting
Serbia 197 And counting
Bangladesh 183 And counting
Morocco 181 And counting
United Arb Emirates 146 And counting
Greece 146 And counting
And counting
And counting
And counting
And the birds are getting louder
Music is the pleasure the mind experiences from counting without being aware that it is counting. And the birds are getting louder. Counting as they sing. Counting the dead? Counting down? To what?
