The Simurgh Project
Search for Simurgh (working title), a new piece in development named for the Persian mythological creature akin to a Phoenix, is an immersive, interactive performance installation exploring freedom both internal and external. Initially envisioned by Roya Movafegh and Kate Digby as a sequel to Movafegh’s novel, The People With No Camel, about her family’s escape from Iran during the revolution, Search for Simurgh has continued to develop in the years since Movafegh’s untimely passing as a tribute to her life and work.
This project is supported in part by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts, Kansas State University, and individual donors. The art-science collective PACIS (Erika Batdorf, Kate Digby, Mark-David Hosale and Alan Macy, and others) will begin creating Search for Simurgh in June 2018.
Tax deductible (for US citizens) contributions to support this project may be made to one of the following funds:
- Interoceptive Performance Fund at Kansas State University
- Kate Digby’s Sponsored Project through Fractured Atlas
Excerpt from “The People With No Camel”
“I’m searching for Simurgh.”
“Where?”
“I don’t know.”
“Why are you searching for her?”
“I want her to eat me.”
“Are you insane?”
The woman says nothing…
“So you’d rather seek death.”
“Not death, freedom.”
“And you think you’ll find freedom in the stomach of a phoenix?”
“No. But my search will begin there.”
By Roya Movafegh