The Defying Parrot

Welcome to the Index summer festival The Defying Parrot. The defying parrot is one part character, one part mimesis, one part festival. The festival is a gathering point for the poly-vocal voices of Index’ learning program. Celebrating the form that harbours and contains the artistic work happening throughout the year in Index in relation to learning. The festival functions as a platform to test out the learning related temporalities of the institution.

Here in the festival format, we have invited the character of the parrot – one who can mimic and defy political, social and artistic forms – to help us to understand ways of approaching social responsibility, group dynamics and the core activities of learning with contemporary artistic practice. The festival generates and repeats poetic statements, much like a mimicking parrot lost in the city.

There are three new commissions for the festival, as well as workshops, performances and musical responses. The commissions each experiment with methods of co-authorship, inviting groups of young people to work alongside and within the process, complicating the question of mimicry in learning with contemporary art. The Defying Parrot invites you to follow the movements of social movements in the city, it greets you as the Host and The Ghost of the gallery, it calls out in response to technological aspects of mimicry, and visits an exhibition in character.

Responding to discussions and experiences of the Index Teen Advisory Board, the parrot is a critical response to the socially coded nature of art spaces.

Participating artists: Ina Hagen and Sol Archer together with Index Teen Advisory Board: Daniel Murisima, Ida Ippolito, Hannes Schelin, Mika Sundell, Maria Muhoza, Isabella Gillborg, and Niko Erfani, Celine Manz together with Amina Seid Tahir and Leo W O Silkeberg, Pontus Petterson together with The Hosts and The Ghosts, and Tyler Coburn.

Food and drinks by Vivo Vegan Food Bike, music by Stockholmskolan Deluxe and DJ Lasmi Belmar.
Curator: Emmeli Person