The Bird of a Thousand Voices (2024) is a large-scale motor-controlled installation by Boris Acket measuring 12 × 7 meters. Constructed from aluminum, transparent fabric, custom mechanical components, and tungsten lighting, the work operates as both autonomous sculpture and scenographic element.
The installation originated within the eponymous music-theatre production directed by Ruben van Leer, with music by Tigran Hamasyan, which premiered at Holland Festival on June 8, 2024. Within that performance context, sculpture, text, sound, and choreography formed an integrated narrative environment.
The project references mythological traditions surrounding the firebird—figures associated across cultures with renewal and awakening. In Armenian tradition, the bird’s power resides in its voice. The installation extends this mythology into mechanical form: articulated wing structures suggest Leonardo da Vinci’s speculative flying machines, foregrounding the persistent human ambition to engineer flight.
Materially, the work stages a dialogue between natural and artificial systems. Fabric surfaces behave like membranes; motorized components impose programmed movement; tungsten light activates depth and shadow within ecclesiastical architecture, as seen in its 2026 presentation at Vilnius Light Festival in St. Catherine Church.
Rather than resolving illusion and engineering, the installation sustains their tension. The bird is neither purely symbolic nor purely technical—it is a constructed apparatus that makes visible the mechanics behind transcendence.
Project Info
Artist: Boris Acket
Year: 2024
Image Credit: Courtesy of the artist / production team (Truth.io)
Creative Direction: Boris Acket, Ruben van Leer
Inspired by the music of: Tigran Hamasyan
Creative Engineer: Merijn Versnel
Production: Truth.io
Supported by: Mondriaan Fund
Shown at: Vilnius Light Festival (2026), St. Catherine Church
Creative Production: Luiza Guidi
Software: Moos Rebolder
