Pigeonswarm

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2023, Intervention in public space, mixed media and group of performers

Mask-making assistance: Juliette Catelle
Photos: Benjamin Renter | Pigeonswarm at the Karneval der Enteignung, 04.02.2023, Oranienstraße, Berlin-Kreuzberg

Pigeonswarm is a performative intervention in urban public space(s). It is conceptualised in resistance against real-estate speculation takeover, tamed cityscapes and the loss of sheltering spaces for humans and more-than-humans in the city of Berlin. The intervention which involves a group of performers embodying a flock of pigeons, premiered in February 2023 at the Karneval der Enteignung, a protest demonstration organised by the Deutsche Wohnen & Co Enteignen civic initiative, to claim the expropriation of Berlin's booming large scale real-estate companies. During pigeonswarm, the performers/pigeons interact playfully with and/or disrupt human flows in the city by imitating the birds’ individual and collective behaviour patterns - walking, gathering, spreading, eating, sitting, circling.