SHIRIN NESHAT + SUSSAN DEYHIM

Logic of the Birds is a new multi-disciplinary collaboration by acclaimed visual artist Shirin Neshat and performer Sussan Deyhim. Working in collaboration with writer Shoja Azari and cinematographer Ghasem Ebrahimian, Neshat and Deyhim fuse film, music and live-performance to explore the tradition of 12th century Persian mysticism and its relationship to contemporary society. Loosely based on the writings of Attar, Logic of the Birds relates an arduous mystical journey.

Logic of the Birds is a simultaneous presentation of live and filmed performance. All text is set to music and sung in Farsi by Sussan Deyhim, embodying the main character with her “electrifying voice”, mixing “ancient lament and explosive avantgarde sound” (NY Times).

With Logic of the Birds, Neshat and her artistic team bring the breathtaking choreography of their film installations into three-dimensional space. Combining the sensuality of cinema and the drama of theatre, this project features one panoramic screen focusing on a woman’s fantastical journey and two side panels following the oppressive movements of an anonymous crowd.

The stage operates as the meeting point between the two antagonists and as the journey unfolds, the film turns from black and white to colour. The hundred virtual actors of the film meet a group pf 15 - 20 live performers.
 

PRODUCTION DATES
New York, USA, The Kitchen
5 - 15 October 2001
Minneapolis, USA, Walker Art Center, 20 - 21 June 2002
New York, USA, Lincoln Center
12 - 13 July 2002
London, UK, Union Chapel
6 - 9 & 11 - 12 November 2002
Siracusa, Italy, Greek Theatre, Ortigia
Festival, 25 - 27 July 2003
Brugge, Belgium, Concertgebouw,
17 - 18 October 2003