‘I am one colour with your friendship, a companion of your love.’

–Jalaluddin Rumi¹

The exhibition Valleys Of The Simorgh materialised from the INTRA project with the long title, INTRA Research Project: Valleys of the Simorgh. A transhistorical Quest for Equality and Democracy² inspired by the Persian poet Farid Ud-Din Attār’s Conference of the Birds which embarks on the quest for the Simorgh. The exhibition was hosted at Hinterland, an independent art space and platform established by Gudrun Wallenböck, which is dedicated to promoting intercultural and interdisciplinary projects in Vienna. Funding and support for this project and the exhibition and publication were generously provided by the Support and Research Department of the University of Applied Arts Vienna and the Program for Inter and Transdisciplinary Projects in Art and Research (INTRA).

Following the order of the tale, the exhibition is structured into seven valleys: Valley of the Quest by Ahmadjan & Maren Amini, Valley of Love by Tanja Boukal, Valley of Knowledge by Monika Huber, Valley of Detachment by Ali & Maheen Kazim, Valley of Unity by Anahita Razmi, Valley of Wonderment by Mohsin Shafi, and Farkhondeh Shahroudi’s Valley of Poverty and Annihilation. The exhibition creates a discourse around the political realm of Attār’s narrative while it delineates the cumulative undertaking for independence, sovereignty and egalitarianism.

Farid al-Din Attar, who lived in the late twelfth and early thirteenth centuries in present-day northeastern Iran, was a pharmacist and physician in the bustling city of Nishapur, a vibrant center of culture and learning. He penned several profound books reflecting great erudition and understanding of the Sufi path of love and spiritual journeying. His works summon readers into the divine world of Sufi spirituality. As a master literary craftsman and gifted storyteller, he wove his narratives in a rich, poetic style that is at once evocative and mesmerizing.

His masterful storytelling skills come to fore in his most celebrated work, Mantiq al-Tayr  known in English as The Conference of the Birds, an epic poem composed in rhyming couplets. This masterpiece contains a primary framework, interspersed with secondary stories and anecdotes culled from religious and secular history, folklore and everyday life³. The journey taken by the birds in Attar’s illustrious poem leads them through seven valleys from which each carve out a different moral lesson. In the valley of search, the birds face countless trials, ultimately discovering that they must not always follow the predetermined path, but instead forge their own journey through patience and determination.

This exhibition addressed the political sphere of Attār’s narration while it recounts the collective struggle for freedom and equality. The father-daughter duo Ahmadjan and Maren Amini take viewers on a journey from Afghanistan to Hamburg in Germany, an expedition that reflects on affiliations and delight, bereavement and rewards. This endeavour came with many hardships, which caused inner and outer turmoil in Ahmadjan’s search for happiness. Maren Amini recounts these experiences in her graphic novel, Ahmadjan und der Wiedehopf (Ahmadjan and the Hoopoe), which connects her father’s migration story with Attar’s Conference of the Birds.

Tanja Boukal’s Ode to Joy illuminates the complexities of borders and their impenetrability. She keenly observes how individuals navigate and adapt within their social, political, and regional contexts, particularly in response to unusual and unforeseen circumstances. Her focus primarily centers on those who typically remain out of the public spotlight; nevertheless, their often-overlooked achievements leave a profound impact.

Friedrich Schiller’s libretto is used by Ludwig van Beethoven in the final movement of his Ninth Symphony, which was adopted as the Anthem of Europe by the European Union⁴. The script poignantly conveys Europe’s dichotomous boundaries and the unwelcome visitors that cross them. Beneath a narrative that portrays an ostensibly idyllic society of contemporaries, bound together by the promise of joy and friendship, lies a complex web of sorrow. A delicate, hand-knitted cashmere cloth, created by Boukal, interwoven with the lyrics of the Europe anthem, stands juxtaposed with barbed wire panels in a thought-provoking display. This luxurious plaid has accompanied Boukal on her wanderings through Melilla, a Spanish enclave on Africa’s northern shore, as she documented the contrasts of life on both sides of the border. In a striking irony, migrants clad in this cashmere fabric, once a symbol of European ideals, appear vulnerable, exposed to the harsh realities of the continent’s borders⁵.

Farkhondeh Shahroudi’s Double Poet challenges the potency of language by offering a perspective that manifests as a silent, emulated body. It invites the observer to explore narratives infused with sentiment, compassion, and intelligence, while simultaneously serving as a personification of the hereafter—its meaning evolving through context, space, and time. Shahroudi’s principal source of inspiration for her artistic research is poetry. Whether it is automatic writing or Persian letters, the process remains just as slow due to the hand-stitched nature and the indecipherability of the overlapping graphic signs. This heavy layering obscures the original form and content, giving rise to a new entity: a visual language that suggests writing while eluding comprehension as a legible text.

Monika Huber ties the local and national worlds of experience, permitting viewers to familiarise themselves with what at first seems far away and consequently tackles our compassion.  In Huber’s piece titled #677_140123 an individual comes into view while holding two posters. They seem to emerge from the distortion in the background to be highlighted with underlined delineations forming the outlines of two faces. The only thing that is detectable in the picture are the posters, which obscure the face of the person holding them up.

In Ali Kazim’s installation The Conference of the Birds⁶, three thousand unbaked clay birds were placed on display, intentionally sundried rather than fired, disintegrated in the rain, adding an ephemeral quality to the artwork. In Valleys of the Simorgh, he reemerges to collaborate with Maheen Kazim on a textile that heralds the journey through the hoopoe, transforming the flock of birds into a central motif within the fabric itself. The bird known as the hoopoe has been a common motif in the literature and folklore of eastern Mediterranean and Middle Eastern cultures, from ancient to modern times. In the medieval Islamic world, the hoopoe also played a prominent cultural role, most notably via its inclusion in the Qur’ānic narrative surrounding the Prophet Solomon, and its prominence as the central character in Farīd al-Dīn ‘Aṭṭār’s book-length poem The Conference of the Birds (Manṭiq al-Ṭayr) ⁷.

Twelve performers unite through their individual screens to create a commune that celebrates diversity while harmoniously blending together. In Anahita Razmi’s Roof Piece Tehran, the unifying harmony of dance becomes a theme, as does the power of silent protest against oppression. The performers stand atop the rooftops of Tehran, a bold splash of red against the sombre, earth-toned shadows below. This visual statement aims to evoke the power of Tehran’s skyline as a platform for expression, inspired by choreographer Trisha Brown’s 1971 groundbreaking work, Roof Piece, which unfolded on twelve rooftops across a ten-block expanse in downtown New York, and draws on this concept to challenge Iran’s post-presidential election landscape⁸.

Which love has the right to persist and to be lived? Mohsin Shafi recounts the story of Shah Hussain (also known as Madhoo Lal Hussain) and his lover – a relationship that was prohibited and repressed by colonisation and religion, a love that Shafi recalls, that he makes visible and that needs to be recognised.

Through this work and its intricate process, Shafi aims to illuminate the diverse perspectives and inquiries surrounding identity as they pertain to self-perception and consciousness within these spiritually evocative spaces; the liberation of visibility for those harboring nonconformist ideas amidst militaristic conditions, and the label of ‘the other’ imposed by the gaze of the observer. At Madhoo Lal’s shrine, the threat of being scrutinized through the confines of sexual taboos, gender binaries, ethnic hierarchies, and the public exposure of such realities is virtually nonexistent. Undoubtedly, there are challenges in being seen and judged, in the risk of being flattened into a stereotype; yet, the devotees of this pair remain unfazed, a quality Shafi finds profoundly beautiful.

Shafi’s piece contains proportions of personal and found footage of the shrine and Mela Chiraghan⁹. as well performances based on Shah Hussain’s poetry known as Kafis. Although it could be challenging to ascertain the nature of Shah Hussain’s relationship with Madhoo Lal, the poet was believed to have indulged in physical rather than spiritual association with his most fervent follower. He was, however, impervious to his reputation and the two continued to live together till the death of the Shah Hussain. With Difficult are the meanings of words, Shafi opens up a realm of freedom. The Festival of Lights, the shrine of Shah Hussain and Sheikh Madho as well as collective and ritual practices become heterotopic realms that enable resistance to oppression, give visibility to homosexual love and provide at least temporary security.

In Persian literature of the twelfth century, the Simorgh takes center stage in Farid Ud-Din Attar’s epic poem, The Conference of the Birds (Mantiq at-Tayr). Attar’s work is considered as one of the reference books when it comes to understanding medieval Islam and the Sufi thought that prevailed at the time. Other Sufi teachers before and after Attar frequently used similar metaphors, stories, and imagery to impart ancient wisdom. ¹⁰  Diverseness, cross-cultural understanding and the legibility and significance of the allegorical poem The Conference of the Birds about human struggle, both physical and spiritual is relevant even today. Every individual has their own set of ideas and ideals, our own fears and anxieties, as we hold on to our own version of the truth. Like the birds of this story, we may take flight together, but the journey itself will be different for each of us.

Valleys of the Simorgh, curated by Anita Hosseini & Gudrun Wallenböck, was exhibited at Kunstraum Hinterland, Vienna from 27 June – 07 September 2024. The exhibition was the result of the INTRA project Valleys of the Simorgh. A transhistorical Quest for Equality and Democracy.

Project Team: Anita Hosseini, Marcia Schmidt, Gudrun Wallenböck.

Title image: Ahmadjan Amini, Series Vögel, Liquid acrylic on glossy paper, 21 x 30cm, 2023 (left), Anahita Razmi, Roof Piece Tehran, 2011/ 2020, © Anahita Razmi (center), Tanja Boukal, Ode to Joy 44 portraits, cashmere-wool, paper, wood, 134 x 114 cm (incl. wooden frame), 2014 (right)