“He who would know the secret of both worlds,
will find the secret of them both is Love. The lover’s power is such that, like a bird,
he cuts the path to heaven when he will.”
“How could the first-created angel raise
his head from that sea’s depths through endless days? Love’s fire is stronger than the angel’s might, and those who are not lovers shun its light.”
Farid al-Din Attar (1145–1221)
“The Conference of the Birds”
(منطق الطیر, Mantiq al-Tayr)
sky, drones, birds
Shahed-129, Mohajer-4, Orlan-10, Forpost, MQ-1 Predator, MQ-9 Reaper, Bayraktar TB2, ANKA-S: for more than a decade, the skies were full of drones. Birds have left the skies over Syria.
The veil of uncertainty obscures the full extent of the military drone operation in the war. The shadows of hidden strategies and unspoken loyalties obscure the exact figures, while the multitude of actors makes clarity difficult to achieve. Drones are silent observers and instruments of devastating effect.
Since the beginning of the war in 2011, the regime forces have implemented drones into their military network, deploying 39 different types. These mechanical hawks have flown over the battlefields, gathering intelligence, directing attacks and targeting opposition sanctuaries. Elsewhere, the chaos of war has led to improvisation: ISIS and other non-state actors have embraced commercial drones. Manufactured in workshops and modified from off-the-shelf goods, these devices have become tools to monitor opponents and unleash fury on contested territories.
The course of the war changed when the Russian armed forces flew unprecedented numbers of drones into Syrian airspace. Russia had an arsenal of drones, which was expanded during the years. The war in the air proved indispensable, as drones gathered information to choreograph air strikes, map opposition movements and reinforce ground offensives. The battlefield widened as the Russian footprint deepened. The drones were silent witnesses to the reshaping of Syria’s destiny. Iran, constrained by sanctions and the weight of an aging conventional air force, found in drones a pathway to regional might. The United States also turned to the sky, their reliance on drones shaping the conflict in parallel.
Across all factions, drones became more than tools—they became symbols of the war’s shifting character. The battlefield stretched upward, warplanes sharing the sky with these tireless sentinels. Precision met lethality, and a new calculus of control emerged. The air became a domain of dominance, a harbinger of devastation, its effects rippling across human lives and the animal kingdom alike.
This is war as defined by drones – a battlefield without borders, wars that take place in deadly and silent flights.
Sampling Conjunction of Opposites
the summing of rare earths and the agonizing silence of feathers
Building on and referencing Liliane Lijn’s work “Conjunction of Opposites: Lady of the Wild Things and Woman of War” (1985), “Sampling Conjunction of Opposites: The summing of rare earths and the agonizing silence of feathers” creates an infinite mirrored space.
The situation is framed by two opposing mirrors, which form a reflective void trough recursive mirroring. At its center, a metallic fragment—as a wing from a downed metal hawk—faces a sculpture woven from microscopic high-resolution patterns of feathers. These two objects engage in a recursive dialogue, the reflections extending endlessly into the mirrored expanse. A beam of laser light connects the two forms, creating a telemetric connection between them. The situation is accompanied by a sound collage that fuses the poetry of birds, sonar waves, light and speed into an immersive sensory experience.