Lígia Soares and Henrique Furtado Vieira come together for the first time in a creation to study, reproduce and reinvent artistic forms resulting from collapsing systems and, in doing so, create a collection of performances based on the historical relationship between the crisis and the emergence of different artistic avant-gardes. ‘To die for little birds’ aims to find ways of meaningfully sharing with the public the end of a world as we have known it and the possibility of a collective mourning that can confront us with non-sense, emptiness, fear, dehumanisation, but above all, with each other.

Several avant-garde art movements emerged after traumatic moments in history, moments when humanity showed new limits to its self-destructive capacity - the Great Wars or the Cold War with its atomic threat. Today, in the twenties of the 21st century, we are once again facing the ‘end of the world’. The project thus seeks inspiration from historical artistic movements that emerged in response to periods of crisis, such as Dadaism, expressionist dance and the theatre of the absurd, in order to confront current challenges, such as the environmental crisis and the feeling of powerlessness in the face of complex global systems.

This project has been underway since October 2023 and is being built residence by residence, immersed in the local context. One of the distinctive features of ‘To die for little birds’ is its focus on the active participation of the public. By directly involving local participants in the performances, the project not only democratises the creative process, but also strengthens the relationship between the artists and the community, allowing everyone to contribute to their narrative. ‘To die for little birds’ functions as a collection of performances ready to be activated and adapted to the spaces and contexts of circulation, taking advantage of their different characteristics.