SPACE21 Sound Gallery is housed on the second floor of the historic Yellow Building in the old tobacco factory in Slemani. Abandoned after the Kurdish revolution in 1991, the factory has been reborn as a vibrant cultural hub—a “culture factory”—for the city’s creative makers. The gallery’s hall still holds the scent and spirit of its sonic past, echoing the labour and stories of those who once worked there, including the father of SPACE21 founder Hardi Kurda. Stepping into the hall is like entering a living tobacco factory museum, where the original machines remain as silent witnesses to a bygone era. Today, instead of producing tobacco, the space invites listeners and artists to collaborate in the creation of sound. The hall’s resonance calls everyone back to collective work, transforming industrial memory into an artistic experience—where the sounds of the past inspire new sonic futures