Simorgh Solidarność
2011
Objet, 207 x 134 cm.
Materials: needle-work, cotton, synthetic velvet & leather (edition of 3)
Collection: Collectie M HKA, donation by Christian Kaspar Schwarm, 2022 (Inv. no. S0722).
Simorgh Solidarność puts the mythical Persian bird at the heart of the Polish Resistance movement's S as anchor. Just as Solidarność Walczaca placed the royal eagle, banned from official Polish insignia during communist rule, as an act of defiance to martial law, Simorgh Solidarność puts an Islamic bird as symbol of solidarity, pointing to a less doctrinaire, more mystical understanding of Persian identity. The simorgh figures heavily in literary works such as Ferdowski's Shahnameh and Attar's Conference of the Birds and shares features with the phoenix and the Russian жар-пти́ца (fire-bird).