The Herds: Beware, Humans! Animals Will Reclaim the Planet
Not even flesh nor blood – cartand and plywood. A herd of animals, fierce and beautiful, proud, elegant, highly alarmed, yet intensely graceful, carved from the void, manipulated by humans, crossed deserts, frozen mountains, seas, and cities teeming at a slow pace, as if in a procession, as if it were the last walk before the extinction of allthem. There were 20,000 kil20,000meters between Quinxassa, inthe Congo, and theNorth Cape in Norway, and a herd of life-size puppets—zoologically accurate animals—that headed north, seeking to escape the climate disaster, dramatizing their fate as if on the stage of a operaopera.
“The project began in the Congo rainforest and ended at the Circle Polar , and both environments are under great threat”threat””, commented Amir Nizar Zuabi, directorcdirector artisticof The Herds. “But on this journey we discovered not only how our environments areagileagile, but alsohowhow resilient nature can beand how resilient people can be resilient when they work together. This journey is, at the same time, a time to mourn what we are losing, but it is alsoitan invitation to think differently, to adapt, to not accept reality as it is. And to imagine a new relationship with nature.”
Designed by Ukwanda Puppets and Designs Art Collective, from South Africa, the mirrorcshow had 56 performancespublicin 11 countries, with trained approximately 1,000 guitarists. “And if this journey is possible, what other seemingly impossible tasks can we achieve, if we move forward with insight, compassion, ingenuity, love, and imagi?”, asks producer David Lan.
As as the animals moved, the herd grew. Asoror with 15, ended with 65— and with wolves, deer, moose, and reindeer joining elephants, giraffes, gorillas, and lions. Along the way, a trail of absence was left behind, aexcessive laughter, a silent warning: “Weare this fragile, but, beware, humans: we will reclaim our planet.”
