with a Bird,

Coming up at Onomatopee: with a Bird,

Artists: Daniel Godínez Nivón, Ignace Cami, Bryony Dunne, Ai Ozaki, Sergio Rojas Chaves, Monika Czyżyk, Manjot Kaur and Sara Sejin Chang (Sara van der Heide). 

With a Bird, explores birds as visionaries, inspiring humans in scientific and spiritual understandings of life. Birds are among the species most admired by humans, from their ability to fly to their navigational skills and song. They have been extensively observed, studied, and featured in many folktales. The human aspiration to become bird-like and acquire their qualities has influenced scientific advancements and spiritual belief systems.

With a Bird, showcases projects, objects, and investigations where artists explore our relationships with birds. These works delve into how we seek to understand, emulate, and connect with birds while examining how they transcend categories such as human and non-human, science and folklore, life and death, reality and dreams, and the realms of land, water, and sky.

This exhibition is the second installment in Folklore & Critical Research, a five-year program series titled A Tree, With a Bird, By a Woman, On Land, Under a Star.

A Tree, With a Bird, By a Woman, On Land, Under a Star unfolds like a recipe or a spell, where each “exit point” becomes a chapter, growing into its own ecology of stories, characters, and meanings. Together, these elements form a composition—a picture, a tarot card—that speaks to both the past and future, offering insights, warnings, or remedies for the present.

This research series weaves together exhibitions, workshops, publications, and events, embracing folklore and critical research as a site of rich and transformative encounters. Here, science and intuition meet: they converse, challenge, and complement one another, bridging hard facts with spirituality and rigorous inquiry with the realm of imagination.

Visuals by: Studio Yannick Nuss
Curated by: Marjolein van der Loo

With a Bird, is on show at Onomatopee from January 11 until April 27, 2025. Open every Friday, Saturday and Sunday between 12–5pm. More info can be found here. With a Bird, is generously supported by Mondriaan Fund and Cultuur Eindhoven.