Nira Pereg filmed her video 67 Bows at the zoo in Karlsruhe, Germany (2006). The video follows a flock of flamingos that moves about in graceful coordinated movements, with each bird engaging in its own motions. Suddenly the tranquility of the zoo is disturbed by the click of a safety-catch being released and then a rifle shot. In response to this the birds raise their heads and stretch their necks. When the sound of the shot dies down they return to their previous activities. The click and the sound of the shot are repeated over and over, and after some time the birds raise their heads at the sound of the click alone – a Pavlovian dynamics or a post-traumatic response of raising the threshold of anxiety?
It turns out that Nira Pereg created a spectacular choreography at the enchanting zoo without any sounds of shots. She spent ten whole days in the company of the flamingos, which learned to identify her and responded to her movements. She incorporated the click and the sound of the shot only later, during the editing stage.
In the video, an idyllic tranquility and a supratemporal aesthetics are suddenly cut by a group response of wonder, menace: the fragile threshold between reality and play or enchantment as a metaphor? The answer lies within the beholde.