Join artist Aliaskar Abarkas and curator, researcher and writer, Mariam Elnozahy, and musician and architect Mhamad Safa as they expand on themes from To Re-Cite, Aliaskar’s project exploring sound, music, and listening through faith and collective experience.
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The conversation will expand on themes emerging from Abarkas’ workshops, reflecting on how sonic practices – from recitation and prayer to breath, rhythm, and silence – shape spiritual, emotional, and communal life. Beginning with the Qur’anic verse Ayat al-Kursi, whispered across generations and transmitted as both lullaby and sonic protection, the project considers how sound moves through memory, ritual, architecture, and collective experience.
Full details of the event, including confirmed speakers, will be announced at a later date.
To Re-Cite is co-commissioned by Counterpoints Arts and Whitechapel Gallery for Backyard Biennial.
About Aliaskar Abarkas
Aliaskar Abarkas is an Iranian artist based in London.
Rooted in alternative and communal art education, his practice stages choreographic encounters that move from individual elements into collective expression. Often in dialogue with historical sources, Abarkas builds collaborative frameworks that invite participants to interpret and activate inherited scores through music, exhibition, and performance-making.
He is currently an Associate Artist at Sadler’s Wells / Rose Choreographic School (London, 2024–26) and Lead Artist at Autograph Gallery (Acts of Solidarity, in partnership with All Change, London, 2025–28). He holds a BA in Visual Cultures from the University of Tehran and an MA in the Theory of Contemporary Art and Politics from Goldsmiths, University of London. Previous residencies include Cubitt Gallery and the Swiss Church (London), as well as Rupert (Lithuania), the Institute of Postnatural Studies (Madrid), Castro (Rome), Open School East, and Syllabus V (UK), among others.
His work has been supported by institutions including the Barbican Centre, ICA, The Mosaic Rooms, TACO!, Pushkin House, LUX (London), CAPC (Bordeaux), LOCALES (Rome), Scuola Piccola Zattere (Venice), and CIRCA. Upcoming projects include commissions and collaborations with Arts Catalyst (Sheffield), YDP Foundation (London), and the Singapore Art Museum.
About Mariam Elnozahy
Mariam Elnozahy is a curator, researcher, and writer. She currently serves as the Artistic Director of Konsthall C in Stockholm, where her program “Sacred Spaces” invites artists to address questions of religion and society. Previously, she ran exhibitions and programs at the Townhouse Gallery for Contemporary Art in Cairo and worked at Ma3azef Magazine. She has also curated exhibitions in Copenhagen, London, Oslo, Uppsala, Amsterdam, and Jeddah and conducted workshops in Tunis and Tangiers. These programs often addressed histories of globalization, development, and resource extraction. She also works to support artists at various stages of conceptualization and artistic production. Her writing has been published in CURA Magazine, Frieze Magazine, The TLS, Markaz Review, Hyperallergic, and MadaMasr. She was in residency at the Jan Van Eyck Academie in Maastricht, NL from 2022-2023 conducting research in the archive of Royal Dutch Shell. She holds a masters degree from the Aga Khan Program for Islamic Architecture at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
About Mhamad Safa
Mhamad Safa is a London-based musician and architect whose work explores the intersection of multi-scalar spatial conditions and their sonic make-ups. He graduated from the Centre for Research Architecture at Goldsmiths, University of London, in 2019 and received his PhD from the University of Westminster in 2024. He is a Lecturer in Architecture and Media Studies at the Royal College of Art in London. He also lectures in Sound Arts at the London College of Communication. His sound work was featured at the Renaissance Society in Chicago, the Sharjah Architecture Triennial, the Bergen Assembly, the Goethe-Institut, Kunsthalle Basel, and the Institute of Contemporary Arts.
IMAGE: Exhibition Catalogue: Woven Air: The Muslin and Kantha Tradition of Bangladesh, 1988, Whitechapel Gallery. Courtesy of the Whitechapel Gallery Archive
