In late 2013, Egyptian authorities detained a migratory stork traveling from Israel to Egypt because of an electronic device attached to its leg.

It was suspected of espionage. Almost one hundred years earlier Lord Allenby, the British High Commissioner in Cairo, completed a major phase in biblical prophecy by launching bird-like machines to capture Jerusalem from the Ottomans.

The General’s Stork is a performance lecture that converges historical accounts of biblical prophecies, colonial narratives, and the politics of surveillance. Within the context of current politics, the talk will investigate the contemporary conditions of Egyptian state paranoia that turned a migrating bird into a spy.

The lecture performance will be held in English.

Photo credits: “Lord Allenby - The “man of the moment” with his curious friend - an old Marabout stork that no one can handle but the famous field marshal.” Cairo, 1922

On occasion of the exhibition Ultrahabitat:
29 April – 30 July 2016, Tuesday – Saturday, 11am – 7pm