When the Seagulls Follow the Trawler
Named after a famous quote from 1995 by football player Eric Cantona*, the film When the Seagulls follow the Trawler was born out of Klas Barbrosson’s own ornithophobia (fear of birds).
“The idea for the work had occupied my mind for a long time. The resistance was probably quite strong, but sooner or later I had to do this, somehow. I may not suffer from it that badly, but I have orniphotobia. It probably started with me watching Hitchcock when I was too young. One day I lost my cheeseburger in Gothenburg. A seagull took it out of my hand. I was so shocked that I went home and went to bed. Offended by a seagull. There, in bed with seagull-anxiety, staring at the ceiling the idea was born.”
In the form, style, and repetitiveness of a 1920s silent film, and with Hitchcockian wit, technique, and suspense, the video follows a Barbrosson who, for a week daily purchases a cheeseburger, expecting to walk and eat it in peace and quiet, only to be attacked by seagulls’ time and again. Barbrosson performs a kind of shock-cbt. “I have not been cured at all, but the adrenaline and anxiety literally gushed every day. Felt alive. After my week in Brunnsparken, the city put up signs that one must not feed the birds and that one must watch out for attacking birds. You could say that the performative part influenced the cityscape.”
Klas Barbrosson (f. 1976) studied at the Royal Institute of Art in Stockholm. He is known to question the concept of culture and to challenge the widely held belief that there are two types of culture: one more important type catering to the highly educated upper middle class, and one superficial, wear and tear-culture for the young and uneducated. Barbrosson is perhaps most well-known for the way in which he works with sports-culture in his art, and especially the world of 1990s football. One of his public artworks in Gothenburg is a pizza called First Class, available to order at Odins Pizzeria.
Barbrosson has been exhibitied nationally and internationally at different art institutions such as Thomassen, Galleri Cora Hildebrand, Göteborgs konsthall, Kalmar Konstmuseum, Prosjektrum Normanns, Gallery Steinsland Berliner, Telemarks Artcenter, Art Paris, Bologna Art Fair, The Bucharest Biennale 5 samt Copenhagen Art Festival.
*Football player Eric Cantona was ordered by his club Manchester United to speak at a press conference to explain his notorious kung-fu kick on an abusive Crystal Palace fan during a game in January 1995. At the press conference, the reluctant Cantona said: “When the seagulls follow the trawler, it is because they think sardines will be thrown into the sea,” then up and left. It was one of the most baffling utterances ever made by a footballer. What did it mean? Was he the trawler, the journalists the seagulls? All he would say by way of explanation was: it meant what it meant.