Project Objectives

• To tell the story of the “Republic of St. Kilda” and that of the thousand year old people and civilisation which disappeared forever in August 1930 with the evacuation of the “islands at the end of the world”.

• To contribute to the restoration of the memory of Northern island cultures.

• To bring together the concept of environment and contemporary creation: to forge a strong and symbolic link, beyond space and time, between Celtic cultural vestiges preserved in Kilda on the outer reaches of Europe with those found in Hallstatt, Austria - the cradle of Celtic civilisation and classed as a world heritage site - resulting in an original, staged form of “Lyrical and Musical land Art”.

• To promote the integral use of European choral traditions in a contemporary work. The chorus is at once a central, identifying feature of Bird Men and symbolically, Europe and a founding element of Lyric theatre.

• To further explore new interactive communication technology as well as the notion of artistic ubiquity: the initial action will take place on the island itself and will then be relayed and connected to other places in Scotland and the mainland Europe.