Scala. Simorgh

Simorgh is a sound art piece by Iranian artist pantea, created specifically for Scala, the sound art programme in Tabakalera’s staircase space. For pantea, exploring concepts like the potential of collective gestures, the subjectivities of both human and non-human entities, and engaging with the territory itself are central themes. Through diverse methods—including artistic-adjacent practices like speculative writing and collective archiving—pantea investigates alternative ways of placing us in relation to our surroundings, fostering ecological sensitivity and environmental activism. Central to this process is active listening, which the artist employs as a strategy to consider and engage with interdependent connections¹.

With Simorgh, pantea invites us to engage with the context of Donostia/San Sebastian and Tabakalera through a non-human narrative inspired by Simurg (/sɪˈmɜːrɡ/; Persian), a mythological bird embodying knowledge of the unknown. This project opens a process of listening and generating sensitive responses through imitation. This imitation embodies transformation and change, hinting at alternative modes of presence. Here, we experience an evolving catalogue of bird songs, featuring around 30 species—one for each day of the month—in a speculative soundscape that blends, exchanges, and generates both real and imagined bird calls. These sounds nest, coexist, and traverse the dense concrete and brick structure of Tabakalera and its surroundings. Real, extinct, or imagined, these birds prompt us to reflect on ambiguous borders, migration, forced flows and displacements, territorial conflicts, and climate emergency. With a real-time stream connecting us to the present moment, the piece offers a poetic and restorative gesture, inviting us to think alongside these sounds and create makeshift nests within Scala’s transitional space.

_{1 With Anna Tsing and Elaine Gan, among other contemporary thinkers.}

COLLABORATORS:
Oihana Orkolaga, Mateo Regla, Uxua Arana, Cristina Enea Fundazioa, Parsa Jamshidi.

WITH SOUND AND ARCHIVAL RESEARCH INPUT FROM:

• xeno-canto
• The Eurasian African Bird Migration Atlas
• El atlas de aves nidificantes de San Sebastián
• Enarak, Arandazi
• SEO/BirdLife, la Sociedad Española de Ornitología
• Live streams by Locustream Soundmap, Locus Sonus Locus Vitae research group – ESAAIX (Ecole Supérieure d’Art d’Aix)

Curator:
Anna Ramos