The Parrot Training

Nikolaus Urban

Verlag: Nikolaus Urban, Amsterdam, 1976

Beschreibung

Photographic print, Nikolaus Urban. Black and white silver gelatin print. Mounted on paper with artwork caption applied in black Letraset text (as issued). Caption reads 'The Parrot Training, 1976, Amsterdam. Phrase: "Wovon man nicht sprechen kann, daruber muss man schweig.".' Urban says of the performance: I have attempted to teach a parrot a sentence from a philosophical work in German. It was an eight-day performance with the possibility of an immediate end, if the bird would have repeated the phrase. The public was invited to participate in the teaching too. They usually had another tongue and became involved in the mechanical learning as well. Ordinarily this training can be successful only after one has gained the trust of the parrot. Eight days were a very short time. The expectations in our case were based mostly on the fact that the parrot is the symbol of repetition. "Wovon man nicht sprechen kann, darüber muß man schweigen" is the last sentence of Wittgenstein s Tractatus. It is a formulation of that of which we must be silent, the quotation excluding itself. One of my dreams before the training: I was in a garden and found a parrot. I told him the sentence. He repeated it immediately. Another dream: Somebody asked me to say the sentence before the last one in the book. Quoted from Nikolaus Urban, De Appel's portfolio Hollandse Week). Condition: some halding marks to the photographic print, print is attached with glue to the paper mount, some wrinkling to the paper mount, minor ageing to the edges (caused by previous framing?), 2-3 individual letters missing from the Letraset. Overall: VG. Bestandsnummer des Verkäufers 12981

Bibliografische Details

Titel: The Parrot Training

Verlag: Nikolaus Urban, Amsterdam

Erscheinungsdatum: 1976

Zustand: Very Good