Hiding Wings

The two-hour performance Hiding Wings was created within the framework of SCH, a curatorial experiment by Kadiatou Diallo on silence, memory and belonging.

Concealed beneath vast grey fabric wings, Olivia Wiederkehr explored the boundaries of personal territory and the fragile threshold between protection and exposure. Moving within Youssef Limoud’s large-scale installation, she shifted between gestures of sweeping, circling and brushing. Her wings scraped along walls, stretched across the floor, hovered at minimal distance from delicate sculptures and sandy structures – creating a play of nearness and withdrawal, of presence and evanescence.

The acoustic dimension alternated between rustling, silence, singing and storytelling. Wiederkehr spoke of identity, boundaries, space and shelters, while spontaneous questions and comments from the audience were woven into the narrative. A tentative dialogue emerged between spectators and the winged figure, in which themes of silence, belonging and resistance were enacted both physically and poetically.