Performance-reading by invitation of Lou Villapardierna, Fondation Ricard, Paris, France
Excerpt:
“(…)
For the past few years, I’ve been saying that I’m writing a book about birds. But in truth — like Maggie Nelson — I must confess I haven’t written a single line.
And yet, it’s as if I could flip through all the pages I never wrote, right here in my hands.
So it’s a book about birds — or rather about bird copyright — which I claim to have invented. I highly recommend reading it.
It’s available everywhere: if you open your eyes, if you lift your head while walking, if you listen to the chirping and songs in the morning, you’ll be able to read the incipit I’ve taken special care with:
“____________________”.
Since I began writing this book I never started, the world around me has taken on a dimension I had never imagined before.
I came to realize that in our ways of shaping the world, we had silenced the birds’ songs — so we could monopolize speech and impose our language.
We had locked birds away in their cages and representations.
We had beautifully illustrated them, melodiously imitated them.
How many birds have I found imprisoned on the shelves of our libraries?
How many muffled whistles have I heard through the glass cases of our museums?
So I opened the cage and let the parrot fly away.
I reopened the catalogues and exposed them to the sun — for a long, long time: long enough for the images to fade, the ideas to fly away, and the birds to take back their songs.”
(…)
Carolle Sanchez 