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ANNA MARTYNENKO

THE PARROTS OF DK GAZA

(Saint Petersburg, Russia)

 

Inside a parrot’s brain, there are special groups of interconnected neurons called “vocal nuclei” responsible for vocal learning. Thanks to these vocal nuclei, a parrot can learn and reproduce human words and phrases. In different families, parrots are taught phrases and expressions peculiar to that family and its unique atmosphere. Parrots are also often able to single out and learn words from natural conversation.

In the DK Gaza, next to the cloakroom, there used to be a bird cage with several parrots. Nobody remembers when it got there; it disappeared somewhere in the 1990s. Inside it were over twenty parakeets of various colors. They were looked after by a projectionist called Dmitry, who later began working at the Progress cinema and took the bird cage with him when he left.

The artist recreated the look of the birdcage based on eyewitness accounts, and gave the birds a voice. A choir of parrots utters the “tag cloud” of this place—a stream of words and phrases that are connected to the palace of culture, its history, and the adjacent Kirovsky Zavod factory. The same words that were heard here in the past hang in the air to this very day, broadcast by the parrots, who, like impassionate witnesses, recreate the atmosphere of a particular place and make history audible.

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