©Laurence Winram
HANNA TUULIKKI. “THE BIRD THAT NEVER FLEW”
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
DATE // TIME
Friday, 30th May, 2025 // 7:00pm
IRAUPENA
50’
SPACE
Auditorioum
TICKET
12€ / 8,40€ with AZ Card (Tickets purchased before April 30th will receive a 50% discount)
REDUCED RATES
Ticket sales only in person at AZ Info: €9 for professionals in the sector, persons over 65*, under 30* or with a disability over 33%* (show ID card or proof of disability when buying a ticket) / €9 Groups of 8 or more/ €6 person in a wheelchair and companion. All tickets purchased before April 30th will receive a 50% discount.
Hanna Tuulikki's "the bird that never flew" is a song-cycle for three voices, field recordings, bowed psaltery and electronics, bringing together sacred lament and political protest to raise the alarm for critically endangered birds. After its successful debut in Scotland, Tuulikki’s performance brings to Bilbao this animal fable for tomorrow.
With its distinctive red breast and warbling song, the European robin plays a prominent role in the life of Glasgow's patron saint, St Mungo, who is said to have brought a dead bird back to life by holding it in his hands, smoothing its feathers, and praying until the creature revived.
In times of severe biodiversity loss, Mungo's story of empathy prompts us to consider how we might support other-than-human beings faced with decline brought about by human activity. In acknowledging such loss, it may also provoke us to take action and raise the alarm, much like birds signaling danger as a form of communication crossing species boundaries.
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Weaving what the robin knows of Mistle thrush, Capercaillie, Nightingale, Wood warbler, Tree pipit and Greenfinch, the song-cycle translates the alarm calls of woodland birds into protest chants. In this context, the bird that never flew invites us to attend to the future of our shared biosphere, sounding a red alert through a cacophony of human and avian harmony.
©Laurence Winram
ARTISTIC INFORMATION
Vocal ensemble: Hanna Tuulikki, Lucy Duncombe and Mischa Macpherson
Director, composer: Hanna Tuulikki
Sound design: Sam Annand
Outside eye: Peter McMaster
Field recordings: Pete Smith
Costume: Hanna Tuulikki
Millinery: Lydia Honeybone
Make-up design: MV Brown
Technical manager: Anissa Praquin
Producer: Lydia Honeybone
Originally commissioned by Historic Environment Scotland with Arts&Heritage for Glasgow Cathedral, 2023.
Hanna Tuulikki is a British-Finnish artist, composer and performer based in Scotland, specialising in working with the body to tell ‘stories' about reworlding in times of biospheric crisis. Her interdisciplinary projects often blend innovative vocal composition with costumed choreography, visual scores and drawings, within live performance, film and audiovisual installation.
Selected recent commissions, exhibitions and performances include Glasgow Cathedral with Historic Environment Scotland and Arts&Heritage (2023), National Galleries of Scotland: Modern One (2021-23), British Art Show 9 (2021-22), Hospitalfield, Arbroath (2022), Biennale of Sydney (2022), and Helsinki Biennial (2021).
For her work in sound art, she recently received an Oram Award (2024) and was shortlisted for an Ivor Novello Award (2024). She was shortlisted for the Max Mara Art Prize for Women (2020).
