Hands Bird Pillows
Description: For this Dovecote for Peace dedicated to Istanbul, I was inspired by a long-standing, living relationship between the city and the animals that share its space. In Turkey, traditional pigeon houses reflect an ancient form of coexistence between humans and pigeons. These structures speak of care, presence, and continuity, of a time when animals were not separated from the fabric of architecture and daily life. I was also inspired by the Pigeon Valley in Cappadocia, where thousands of small openings carved into the rock once offered shelter to pigeons, creating a landscape shaped by mutual presence and use.
Description: Sarajevo (Bosnia and Herzegovina) Dovecote for Peace is inspired by the Sebilj Fountain, one of the city’s most emblematic public spaces, where pigeons gather, drink, and move freely around water. It is a place of quiet coexistence between architecture, nature, and daily life. For the base, I was inspired by this fountain, a point of gathering and return, where pigeons are not separate from the city but fully part of it. The sculpture’s foundation becomes a large hand, offering and supporting, echoing the gesture of drinking from water. It sits between giving and receiving, care and dependence, peaceful coexistence, human presence and fragile life.
Description: In Berlin, my Bird of Peace takes the form of a dovecote of memory and reconciliation. Two open hands, side by side, turned downward, become a shelter for the birds. Inside, pigeons rest, visible through the openings of the monument, like a breath within history. The base is a pierced wall, inspired by the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. At that time I was 14 years old, and had the chance to live this historical moment.. As a child I still remember that immense turning point: a wall coming down, borders opening, families reuniting, and that rare feeling that freedom could truly change the world. Above the two intertwined doves, a metal sign carries these words in German: “Denk immer daran”( “Always remember.” ).
Description: The monument itself is built on two large columns, almost like legs, carrying the bird upward. It is standing 15 meters high, alike the other city dovecotes to come. On their surface, I integrated the patterns of the Warsaw mermaid, the city’s emblem, as a way to anchor the work in its identity, its protection, its resilience. At the base, I also included the symbol of the Warsaw Uprising. I felt it was essential. I saw it everywhere when I was in the city, and it stays deeply present in the collective memory. Even in a work dedicated to peace, to coexistence, to pigeons inhabiting the city, I wanted this layer of history to remain visible. Because Warsaw is not only a city of reconstruction, it is a city that remembers.
Description: Inspired by the London Underground network, the golden lines crossing the structure evoke both circulation and refuge. During World War II, Underground stations became shelters for civilians during the Blitz. In the monument, these lines symbolize connection, resilience, movement, and protection, transforming the dovecote into both a sanctuary for the bird of peace, the pigeon, and a memory space for human coexistence. For many years, the pigeons of Trafalgar Square were part of London’s identity, fed, photographed, celebrated, and deeply woven into the memory of the city. Later, they became rejected, increasingly treated as unwanted. This project imagines the return of a peaceful coexistence with respect and care .
