Mathias Antlfinger: Parrot Terristories, a multispecies narrative

Parrot Terristories, a multispecies narrative

The first paintings depicting gray parrots date back to the time when the transatlantic slave trade began. African gray parrots came to Europe on the same ships, on the same trade routes, through which companies traded sugar and enslaved people. Today, there are probably more African gray parrots living in human households worldwide than in their countries of origin in the wild. 
The artistic research project Parrot Terristories is a multispecies narrative about how our histories and cultures are intertwined. Drawing on methods of multispecies ethnography - in interviews, images, sounds and installations - we explore the question of what relationships between African gray parrots and humans were and are possible, and what it means today to care for individuals of this species. 
To this end, we are working together with a network of human and non-human researchers - historian Nancy Jacobs from Brown University, anthropologist Vanessa Wijngaarden from the University of Liège, nature guide Nick Byaba from Uganda, curators from the natural history collections in Tervuren and Berlin and our animal companions. The lecture will provide insights into the creation of this large work complex and the exhibition of the same name in collaboration with TA T, Tieranatomisches Theater der Humboldt-Universität Berlin.

Mathias Antlfinger  is rector (since 2021) and professor of Multispecies Storytelling at KHM since 2008.