INTERVENTIONS: FIREBIRD BY TOUKI DELPHINE

Con­cept, music, and visu­als: Bo Koek, Rik Elst­geest, Chris Doyle, and John van Oost­rum
Instal­la­tion: John van Oost­rum
Design: The­un Mosk, Tou­ki Delphine

Click here to down­load the dig­i­tal program »

PER­FOR­MANCE SCHEDULE

• Octo­ber 3: 7pm
• Octo­ber 4: 7pm

PER­FOR­MANCE LOCATION

Parade Ground, Gov­er­nors Island

ABOUT THE SHOW

Inspired by com­pos­er Igor Stravinsky’s 1919 Fire­bird Suite, FIRE­BIRD pays homage to his musi­cal cre­ations with a per­for­mance cen­tered around a mas­sive wall of light designed to illu­mi­nate the dance of the fire­bird. The unique sen­so­ry jour­ney allows vis­i­tors to rev­el in the glow­ing cel­e­bra­tion and hyp­not­ic dis­play that will trans­form the Parade Ground.

The audi­ence expe­ri­ence begins upon arrival, where all tick­ethold­ers will receive shim­mer­ing metal­lic capes to don once they dis­em­bark, kick­start­ing the spec­ta­cle en route to the show. Guid­ed by the artists them­selves, this glit­ter­ing col­lec­tive will make its way to the Parade Ground — set against the dra­mat­ic Low­er Man­hat­tan sky­line — where FIRE­BIRD bursts to life in a hyp­not­ic dance of syn­chro­nized light, cour­tesy of 500 recy­cled car tail­lights that have been sal­vaged from scrap­yards in the North­east­ern Unit­ed States, all set to Tou­ki Delphine’s con­tem­po­rary com­po­si­tion. Vis­i­tors will also be able to enjoy food and drinks avail­able from Island ven­dors and a post-show gath­er­ing with the artists after each performance. 

FIRE­BIRD orig­i­nat­ed in The Nether­lands in 2019 and has been tour­ing through­out Europe since. It has been pre­vi­ous­ly pre­sent­ed in the Unit­ed States at MASS MoCA, Utah’s Cen­ter for the Arts at Kayen­ta, and at the W.O.W. fes­ti­val in San Diego.

Tou­ki Del­phine is an Ams­ter­­dam-based artist col­lec­tive fea­tur­ing artists Bo Koek, Rik Elst­geest, Chris Doyle, and John van Oost­rum. The col­lec­tive is a bound­­ary-push­ing group of musi­cians, per­form­ers, and visu­al artists mak­ing waves nation­al­ly and inter­na­tion­al­ly with mon­u­men­tal light and sound instal­la­tions, all cre­at­ed from recy­cled mate­ri­als. Tou­ki Delphine’s work cre­ates poet­ic encoun­ters between humans and machines and is inspired by nat­ur­al phe­nom­e­na, the cli­mate cri­sis and the idea of nature as a liv­ing whole.

FIRE­BIRD was cre­at­ed in col­lab­o­ra­tion with MASS MoCA, and sup­port­ed by the Per­form­ing Arts Fund NL. Addi­tion­al sup­port by Dutch Cul­ture USA at the Con­sulate Gen­er­al of the King­dom of the Netherlands.

Pre­sent­ed as part of INTER­VEN­TIONS, Gov­er­nors Island Arts’ annu­al mul­ti­dis­ci­pli­nary per­for­mance series that presents local, nation­al, and inter­na­tion­al artists and invites audi­ences to expe­ri­ence work made and adapt­ed for out­door spaces. INTER­VEN­TIONS is curat­ed by Juan Pablo Siles, Asso­ciate Cura­tor and Pro­duc­er at the Trust for Gov­er­nors Island.