Nestor Pestana: The Bats Project
How can art encourage bat populations to roost?
Bats are keystone and indicator species. They regulate insect populations and offer valuable insights into ecosystem health. Despite their ecological benefits, bats tend to be socially stigmatised, partly due to their nocturnal habits and storytelling portrayals.
The work that artist Nestor Pestana presents is a prototype for an architectural sculpture designed for and with bats. The sculpture itself would be 5 meters high and stand in the Orleans House Gallery woodland. ‘Ovum’ is not only an artwork, but realised in its full size, would function as a maternity roost for female pipistrelle bats and their pups.
To ensure the design meets the needs of these bats, Stephanie Holt from the Natural History Museum has provided expert guidance, assisting as well with a bat survey to gather data on pipistrelle populations and identify the optimal location for the sculpture. The main body of the sculpture is black to help retain heat and create a suitable roosting environment. Its egg-like shape contains an internal structure designed for maternity roosting, optimising airflow and offering different conditions for winter and summer. Six small entry slots allow bats to access the interior while protecting them from predators. The sculpture will be positioned 5 metres above the ground, enabling bats to drop and take flight, which is part of their take-off behaviour. Holes at the base ensure the structure remains self-cleaning.
The name and shape of the sculpture are inspired by mythological and sci-fi narratives. The mythological motif of the cosmic egg is found in many cultures, including Chinese, Dogon, Greek, and Hindu traditions, often describing an entity hatching from an egg and giving birth to the universe. In sci-fi, eggs are a recurring symbol of horror, where otherworldly, visceral, and incomprehensible entities emerge – often to be feared, hunted, and eradicated.
‘Ovum’ reimagines these narratives, offering a safe haven for the othering and for the monsters, and a call for the creation of a new kind of world – one shaped by the prefix multi: multi-species, multi-identity, multi-materiality.
About Nestor Pestana
Nestor Pestana is a Venezuelan-Portuguese multimedia artist based in London. He is a tutor and researcher in the Master’s programmes in Information Experience Design at the Royal College of Art, and in Cinematic and Videogame Architecture MA at University College London.
Through his multimedia art and research practice, Nestor engages in collaborations with scientists and technologists, focusing on two overlapping areas of interest. The first deals with cultural ecologies, particularly in relation to bats, exploring their cultural associations and narrative portrayals in cinema and gaming. The second involves historical archives combined with AI technologies, to investigate potential human-machine collaborations in creating stories and to explore inherent opportunities and ethical challenges.
Through worldbuilding, speculative design, and storytelling, Nestor creates immersive multimedia installations using moving image, illustrations, and sculptural artifacts to engage audiences actively and critically with complex contemporary issues.
His work has been recognised and awarded by the Royal College of Art, Wellcome Trust, Ars Electronica and the YouFab Global Creative Awards.
Visit Nestor’s website at nestorpestana.com.