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Birdie @ Manipulate
Birdie @ Manipulate
Edinburgh Festival Theatre, Studio
Agrupación Señor Serrano are experts in micro-cinema, an energetic genre of visual theatre that integrates projection and object manipulation, effectively creating a film in real time. From the analysis of a single photograph, via sampled moments from Hitchcock’s horror-thriller The Birds and a journey that seems to mimic the entry of the animals into Noah’s arc and evolution, Birdie is a taut examination of migration and privilege, finding a thoughtful symbolism in objects as humble as a golf ball.
After an initial presentation of a newspaper, which sets out the themes of the show through a series of articles, Birdie zooms in on a single photograph taken by José Palazón. While two golfers play on a beautifully manicured course, a group of migrants attempt to climb over a fence, a boundary between Africa and the Spanish city of Melilla. What appears to be an art-historical deconstruction of the image transforms into a stark contrast between the hopes of the migrants and the privilege of the Europeans: golf itself becomes a symbol of the privilege while the red hooded top of one migrant is expressive of both anxiety and hope.
The subsequent tracking shot of plastic animals and babies crawling across a green landscape, punctuated by industrial activities supports the voice-over’s argument that migration, far more than borders, is natural and eternal. The gap between the carefully tended grass of the golf course and the rough adventures of the travellers challenges the separation between migrant – identified with the fear of the settled, and equated to the menacing birds of Hitchcock – and the Europeans. Melilla, as a city, is the locus of tensions, the meeting point of two views of the world, and its tall ‘fence’ a depressing barrier to the natural flows of human movement.
Quietly moving, and assured in its political position, Birdie lightly critiques Eurocentric assumptions about the meanings of borders, hinting at the violence that ultimately maintains them and finding, in golf, a symbol of privilege, even oppression. Confident in technique, presentation and the merging of film, soundscape, monologue and message, Birdie is a challenge to the fear that is placed upon the migrant and obscures the common travels of humanity.
Gareth K Vile
