Solar noon—the midpoint between sunrise and sunset—is when the sun reaches its highest point in the sky at a specific location’s meridian, and when shadows cast in that location are at their shortest. It is also, most likely, the hottest moment of the day, when in many places, people retreat from the external environment, and social gatherings are internalized. Time shifts with the Earth’s rotation, making it unique to each place.
The Solar Noon project aims to create moments of community, conversation, and conviviality as a way to connect and cultivate fertile ground for new imaginaries around gathering. In a series of encounters—or so-called murmurations—Sagal Farah opens up space for conversation and connections around Somali life lived in, around, and with built environments and architectures shaped by both diasporic experience and Somalia itself.
By their very nature, murmurations are moments of call and response among the bodies of starlings, migratory birds. Often mistaken for random formations, their movements are in fact orchestrated, coordinated in deep communion among the limbs of a greater whole—creating a space where bodies flow together, communicate, and let the environment pass through them.
In Milan’s murmurations, Sagal Farah will explore how we connect, gather, leave our marks, and archive our encounters. Her research unfolds through the lens of the Somali experience, primarily engaging with Somali people in Milan who share a diasporic identity. Her studio will serve as a gathering point, a space for rest and respite during solar noon—when the sun reaches its zenith and the shadows beneath it are at their shortest.
This continuation of her research, Solar Noon, was conceived during her first visit to Mogadishu, Somalia (her birthplace) last November, where she confronted the legacy of Italian colonialism embedded in the city’s architecture, monuments, and urban planning—structures that continue to shape everyday Somali life.
About Sagal Farah
Sagal Farah is a writer, curator, and educator whose work engages with migration, geopoetics, and multilingualism, investigating built environments, flora, fauna, and the sonic impact of the migratory body. While language and writing form the core of her practice, her work has also taken shape through installations of both personal and public archival material, as well as image and sound production—attesting to the interweaving of narratives and the significance of specificity in mapping historical, contemporary, and future trajectories.
BIRDS OF PASSAGE
Sagal Farah is one of the recipients of Birds of Passage, the #SameSameCall residency program at BASE, developed in collaboration with Moleskine Foundation and ashikộ, and curated by Mistura Allison. The #SameSameCalls initiative, promoted by BASE Milano in partnership with various organizations, seeks to amplify plurality by including people of all ages, abilities, genders, and races. Recognizing these four dimensions as a single intersection means weaving together the lives of nearly 8 billion people on the planet and fostering transversal, inclusive representation.
This project has been awarded funding through the public call Creative Living Lab – 4a edizione, promoted by the Directorate-General for Contemporary Creativity of the Italian Ministry of Culture.