Nightingale Concert (Luscinia luscinia), 2019

June 2019, action in the urban space

There is a nightingale living in the centre of Warsaw. The bird, which usually doesn’t like crowded and noisy spaces, chose as its shelter a rose bush on Patelnia – the “Frying Pan”, the patio at the south entrance to the Centrum station of the Warsaw Metro.

Apparently, it has been living there for several years. Every year in May and early June, in the evening, at night, and in the morning, one can hear its song. Experts say that it is a phenomenon that it chose this location. After all, the “Frying Pan” is one of the busiest spots in the city, located at the intersection of busy transport routes and always swarming with people.

Nightingales like to be heard. The one from Warsaw city centre must sing louder than its relatives in the suburban areas – it is not easy to drown out the passing trams. Still, hardly anyone stops to listen to its song.

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As part of the exhibition “City Squares. An Instruction Manual” that took place at the Zodiak Warsaw Pavilion of Architecture in June 2019, I invited people to listen to the nightingale’s concert together. The space of a busy square in the city centre has become a space for listening, being together, and awareness. After a two-hour wait, the nightingale began its performance.

In the rhythm of the nightingale’s song, the “Frying Pan” has become a space worth stopping at, a space to listen together, to be with each other, experience time in a different way, and shape the sense of an interspecies intimacy. This concert was the beginning of a series of events during which we collectively listened to seasonal concerts performed by: frogs, crickets, birds, and other creatures.