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Conference of the Birds is a sound and sculptural installation of thirty birdhouses arranged in a spiral. Their forms draw on Iranian mosque architecture and traditional pigeon houses. Each contains a speaker, bringing distinct voices into a shared soundscape. Throughout the installation, the birdhouse serves as an image of home: a place of safety, memory, and spiritual shelter.

Visitors follow a narrow spiral path as human voices gradually give way to birdsong toward the center. The constricted passage asks them to slow down and become attentive to their bodies, their surroundings, and the act of listening. In site-specific versions, Keyvan Shovir incorporates recordings of local birds and conversations with immigrant communities in their native languages, grounding each iteration in the experiences of the people and places around it.

The work’s origins lie in Shovir’s childhood in Tehran, where he was born in 1985 during the Iran–Iraq War. Hearing his father read from the Shahnameh and other works of Persian literature, he encountered the Simorgh as a figure of protection, wisdom, and transformation. After migrating to San Francisco in 2011, he found new meaning in Farid ud-Din Attar’s The Conference of the Birds. In the poem, a flock journeys through seven valleys in search of the Simorgh. Only thirty birds arrive, discovering themselves in the being they sought—a revelation echoed in the Persian words si morgh, meaning “thirty birds.”

Through the spiral’s gathering form and the movement from human speech to birdsong, Shovir connects Attar’s spiritual journey with contemporary experiences of migration and belonging. Individual voices become part of a collective presence, inviting visitors to consider how home takes shape across languages, memories, and relationships.