Audio show: Birds in Sweden by Öyvind Fahlström
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Birds in Sweden is a composition, an audio artwork and/or a poem created in 1962 by Öyvind Fahlström, along with radio engineer Erik Winlöf, originally broadcast on Sveriges Radio in January 1963. Fahlström (1928–1976) was a multi-talented Swedish artist who worked with painting, graphics, poetry, performance and audio art. At the time he had begun experimenting with language, and he was one of the pioneers of concrete poetry.
The title of the radio composition, Birds in Sweden or Fåglar i Sverige, is taken from Erik Rosenberg’s classic Swedish ornithological field guide of the same name, which was published in 1953. It was the first book to formulate onomatopoeic transcriptions of birdsong, and by synthesising these songs Fahlström invented a language called ‘fåglo’ (literally ‘birdo’). Two other invented languages – one actually called ‘birdo’ and the other ‘whammo’ – also appear in the work. Birds in Sweden is recorded by Fahlström himself, but there are also excerpts of sound from films, music, birdsong and sound effects. The composition has an odd structure and has no action (in the traditional sense). Poem stanzas by Fahlström intertwine with imitations of birdsong.
At the time, no ‘poem’ or audio show of this kind had ever been broadcast on Swedish radio, and it attracted a lot of attention, both in Sweden and in the US where Fahlström worked. Birds in Sweden has been said to be a milestone in the history of Swedish audio art, and it has been a source of inspiration for many artists, composers and poets ever since.
Come and enjoy this iconic work at The Nordic Watercolour Museum on 7 May.
Run time: 29:28 min
Starting times: 11.30 am, 1.30 pm and 3.30 pm. Before the audio work begins to play, a short introduction is given.
A part of
Sommarstart
The museum welcomes the great and varied fauna of art! We celebrate with a grand opening that has something for everyone. Discover botany, listen to birdsong, learn things you never knew about lobsters, paint a clump of bladder wrack, or talk about leopards. Summer begins on Sunday 7 May at The Nordic Watercolour Museum!
Program 7 May