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DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20260426T103000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20260816T130000
DTSTAMP:20260709T082731Z
CREATED:20260422T121201Z
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UID:10000614-1777199400-1786885200@counterpoints.org.uk
SUMMARY:To Re-Cite: Ayat al-Kursi - Sound\, Faith\, and Collective Listening - workshops
DESCRIPTION:We warmly invite you to a workshop as part of the wider development of our newly commissioned project with artist Aliaskar Abarkas\, exploring sound\, music\, and listening through faith and collective experience.\nEach session brings together members of our community with Muslim backgrounds to share ideas\, and reflections on how sonic practices – from recitation and prayer to breath\, rhythm\, and silence – shape spiritual\, emotional\, and communal life. The starting point of the project is the Quranic verse Ayat al-Kursi\, whispered across generations\, transmitted as both lullaby and sonic protection. \nThis is a series of workshops forming part of a longer-term project\, with sessions taking place on Sun 26 Apr\, Sun 17 May\, Sun 31 May\, 21 Jun\, 12 Jul\, 26 Jul and 16 Aug 2026. Please book each session individually. \nTo Re-Cite is co-commissioned by Counterpoints Arts and Whitechapel Gallery for Backyard Biennial.\n\nBook workshops on these dates:\nSun 26 Apr 2026\, 10.30am – 12.30pm; book HERE\nSun 17 May 10.30am – 12.30pm; book HERE\nSun 31 May 10.30am – 12.30pm; book HERE\nSun 28 June 11am – 1pm; book HERE\nSun 12 July 11am – 1pm; book HERE\nSun 26 July 11am – 1pm; book HERE\nSun 16 August 11am – 1pm; book HERE\n  \nAbout Aliaskar Abarkas\nAliaskar Abarkas is an Iranian artist based in London. \nRooted 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. \nHe 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. \nHis 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. \nImage: Reverberance\, Living Rehearsing\, YDP\, London\, 2026. Photograph: Anne Tetzlaff
URL:https://counterpoints.org.uk/event/to-re-cite-ayat-al-kursi-sound-faith-and-collective-listening-workshops/
LOCATION:Clore Creative Studio Whitechapel Gallery\, Clore Creative Studio\, Whitechapel Art Gallery\, 77-82 Whitechapel High St\, London\, E1 7QX
CATEGORIES:Community & Participation,Sound Art
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://counterpoints.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/Photo-credit-©-Anne-TetzlafDSC01760-1170x655-1.jpg
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20260730T183000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20260730T200000
DTSTAMP:20260720T120202Z
CREATED:20260709T081340Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260720T120202Z
UID:10000628-1785436200-1785441600@counterpoints.org.uk
SUMMARY:To Re-Cite: What Do We Inherit Through Sound?
DESCRIPTION: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. \nBOOK HERE\nThe 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.  \nFull details of the event\, including confirmed speakers\, will be announced at a later date. \nTo Re-Cite is co-commissioned by Counterpoints Arts and Whitechapel Gallery for Backyard Biennial. \n\nAbout Aliaskar Abarkas\n\nAliaskar Abarkas is an Iranian artist based in London. \nRooted 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. \nHe 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. \nHis 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. \n\n  \nAbout Mariam Elnozahy\nMariam 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. \n  \nAbout Mhamad Safa\nMhamad 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. \n  \n\nBOOK HERE \n\nIMAGE: Exhibition Catalogue: Woven Air: The Muslin and Kantha Tradition of Bangladesh\, 1988\, Whitechapel Gallery. Courtesy of the Whitechapel Gallery Archive
URL:https://counterpoints.org.uk/event/to-re-cite-what-do-we-inherit-through-sound/
LOCATION:Whitechapel Gallery\, 77-82 Whitechapel High St\, London\, E1 7QX\, United Kingdom
CATEGORIES:Sound Art,Visual Arts
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://counterpoints.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/1988_Woven-Air_001-1170x655-1.jpg
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20260815T140000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20260815T150000
DTSTAMP:20260709T080116Z
CREATED:20260709T080116Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260709T080116Z
UID:10000627-1786802400-1786806000@counterpoints.org.uk
SUMMARY:Listening to the Xeedho Archive
DESCRIPTION:Join researcher Ibrahim Hirsi and moderator Heather Marks for an open archive session exploring the research and sound archive behind Fozia Ismail’s A Song for the Xeedho.\nBOOK HERE\nThis informal session offers a behind-the-scenes look at the recordings\, questions and cultural histories informing the project. Ibrahim will share elements of his research into the xeedho — a Somali nomadic wedding vessel — and the oral traditions\, songs\, memories and forms of women’s knowledge connected to it. \nPart presentation\, part listening session and part open conversation\, the event invites audiences to think with the archive as a living\, layered space: one shaped by sound\, migration\, craft\, memory and what is passed between generations. \nA Song for the Xeedho – the Knot Makers is co-commissioned by Counterpoints Arts and Whitechapel Gallery. \n  \nAbout Ibrahim Hirsi\nIbrahim Hirsi is a writer\, archivist\, and editor at Journal Gobanimo. He is a co-founder of Koor Archives and is currently working on his first monograph\, which explores the metre of southern Somali poetic forms. His work has been published in The Poetry Review\, Modern Poetry in Translation\, PBLJ\, and the anthology Before Them\, We (Flipped Eye\, 2022). \n  \nAbout Fozia Ismail\nFozia Ismailis a British Somali artist\, founder of Arawelo Eats and co-founder of dhaqan collective. Her practice moves across food\, sound\, textiles and found objects to create works exploring migration\, climate\, identity and diasporic memory.  \nRooted in Somali nomadic feminist pedagogy\, her work approaches everyday cultural practices as living archives of care\, knowledge and survival. Through collective acts of listening\, eating\, weaving and making\, she reframes domestic and communal space as sites of shared authorship. Central to her practice are inherited materials and objects connected to her mother’s Somali nomadic roots – vessels\, spices\, textiles\, cassette tapes and sound recordings\, which she transforms into sculptural\, time-based and archival works.  \nIsmail has exhibited internationally at the British Textile Biennale\, Southbank Centre\, Biennale Architettura Venice\, Weltmuseum Wien\, Playable Cities\, Osaka and Jodhpur Art Week.   \n  \nAbout Heather Marks\nHeather Marks is an artist\, researcher and producer working across archives\, film\, literature and public programming. Her practice explores Black and Global Majority histories\, with a focus on fugitivity\, fabulation and decolonial practices of repair. She is currently in residence at the National Portrait Gallery\, responding to portraits of 16th – 19th century Global Majority sitters in the Heinz Archive\, and at The Box\, Plymouth\, researching unseen collections in the South West Film & Television Archive. Her moving image work Fugitives in the Archive has screened at Spike Island\, Autograph ABP and Bristol Beacon. \nBOOK HERE \nImage: Listening to the Archive -Maya Mahindou Illustration for Camel Milk & Cassette Tapes two
URL:https://counterpoints.org.uk/event/listening-to-the-xeedho-archive/
LOCATION:Whitechapel Gallery\, 77-82 Whitechapel High St\, London\, E1 7QX\, United Kingdom
CATEGORIES:Sound Art,Visual Arts
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://counterpoints.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/Copy-of-Listening-to-the-Archive-Maya-Mahindou-Illustration-for-Camel-Milk-Cassette-Tapes-two.jpeg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20260815T160000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20260815T170000
DTSTAMP:20260708T170112Z
CREATED:20260708T165909Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260708T170112Z
UID:10000625-1786809600-1786813200@counterpoints.org.uk
SUMMARY:A Song for the Xeedho: Climate\, Censorship and East African Futures
DESCRIPTION:Layla Mahmood\, East Africa Correspondent for The Observer\, joins Mohammed Elnaiem from The Decolonial Centre for a conversation on climate\, censorship and environmental change in East Africa.\nBOOK HERE\nTaking Fozia Ismail’s A Song for the Xeedho as a starting point\, the event considers what disappearing ecologies mean for nomadic life\, oral tradition and ways of knowing rooted in land\, movement and interdependence. \nLayla will be joined by an additional speaker (to be announced) for a discussion on climate\, power\, colonial legacies and who gets to narrate environmental change. \nA Song for the Xeedho – the Knot Makers is co-commissioned by Counterpoints Arts and Whitechapel Gallery. \nAbout Layla Mahmood\nLayla Mahmood is a journalist\, reporter and East Africa Correspondent for The Observer. Her work spans climate\, politics\, culture and social justice. She has worked with The Guardian and the BBC\, with a focus on investigative and people-led reporting that traces how political decisions are felt in everyday life. Her journalism has explored social and political issues across East Africa and the wider diaspora\, alongside cultural writing for publications including Glamour and Subbacultcha!. Layla has also worked as a producer and writer with Fully Focused Productions and Million Youth Media\, supporting storytelling rooted in lived experience and youth perspectives. \nAbout Mohammed Elnaiem\nMohammed Elnaiem is Director of The Decolonial Centre. He is an activist\, and also working on a Ph.D. in Sociology at Trinity Hall\, Cambridge\, where he is writing a dissertation on the relationship between capitalism\, colonialism and patriarchy. \nBOOK HERE
URL:https://counterpoints.org.uk/event/climate-censorship-and-east-african-futures/
LOCATION:Whitechapel Gallery\, 77-82 Whitechapel High St\, London\, E1 7QX\, United Kingdom
CATEGORIES:Sound Art,Visual Arts
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://counterpoints.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/Untitled-design.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20260820T183000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20260820T210000
DTSTAMP:20260708T164412Z
CREATED:20260708T163257Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260708T164412Z
UID:10000624-1787250600-1787259600@counterpoints.org.uk
SUMMARY:A Song for the Xeedho: LATE
DESCRIPTION:Join artist Fozia Ismail and Orsod Malik\, Executive Director of the Stuart Hall Foundation\, for a conversation marking the final event in the A Song for the Xeedho public programme.\nBOOK HERE\nTogether\, Fozia and Orsod will reflect on the themes that have emerged through the installation; from diasporic knowledge systems and oral tradition to archiving\, counter-archiving and anticolonial practice. \nTaking the xeedho as a starting point\, the conversation will consider the knot not only as a material form\, but as a way of thinking: about memory\, inheritance\, migration\, women’s labour and the connections that hold communities across time and place. \nModerated by artist-producer Heather Marks\, this conversation invites audiences into a reflective discussion on archives and other ways of remembering. \nThe evening continues with DJs\, food\, and drinks by Arawelo Studio. \nThis event is part of the public Programme for A Song for the Xeedho\, part of Backyard Biennial. \nAbout Fozia Ismail\n \nFozia Ismailis a British Somali artist\, founder of Arawelo Eats and co-founder of dhaqan collective. Her practice moves across food\, sound\, textiles and found objects to create works exploring migration\, climate\, identity and diasporic memory. \nRooted in Somali nomadic feminist pedagogy\, her work approaches everyday cultural practices as living archives of care\, knowledge and survival. Through collective acts of listening\, eating\, weaving and making\, she reframes domestic and communal space as sites of shared authorship. Central to her practice are inherited materials and objects connected to her mother’s Somali nomadic roots – vessels\, spices\, textiles\, cassette tapes and sound recordings\, which she transforms into sculptural\, time-based and archival works. \nIsmail has exhibited internationally at the British Textile Biennale\, Southbank Centre\, Biennale Architettura Venice\, Weltmuseum Wien\, Playable Cities\, Osaka and Jodhpur Art Week. \nA Song for the Xeedho – the Knot Makers is co-commissioned by Counterpoints Arts and Whitechapel Gallery. \nAbout Orsod Malik\n \nOrsod Malik is a Sudani curator of exhibitions and archives\, writer\, independent researcher\, and the Executive Director of the Stuart Hall Foundation. He currently serves as a Trustee at The Common Guild\, a visual arts organisation in Glasgow. Malik’s work explores transnational cultural and political entanglements in historical narratives to consider the possibility of shared histories. He is particularly interested in the relationship between social movements and aesthetics\, and their combined role in shaping collective identities. \nMalik’s latest project\, Qissas\, was recently shortlisted for the 2026 Fitzcarraldo Essay Prize. He has also curated exhibitions and developed programmes for several cultural organisations including\, the Stuart Hall Foundation\, International Curators Forum (ICF)\, Black Cultural Archives\, Institute of International Visual Arts (iniva)\, Prince Claus Fund and the British Council. \nAbout Heather Marks\n \nHeather Marks is an artist\, researcher and producer working across archives\, film\, literature and public programming. Her practice explores Black and Global Majority histories\, with a focus on fugitivity\, fabulation and decolonial practices of repair. \nShe is currently in residence at the National Portrait Gallery\, responding to portraits of 16th – 19th century Global Majority sitters in the Heinz Archive\, and at The Box\, Plymouth\, researching unseen collections in the South West Film & Television Archive. Her moving image work Fugitives in the Archive has screened at Spike Island\, Autograph ABP and Bristol Beacon. \nHeather has produced cultural programmes and projects with organisations including Words of Colour\, the Southbank Centre\, Glasgow Film Theatre\, Kiraathane and the Irish Writers Centre. She serves on the advisory board of Arawelo Studio. \nBOOK HERE \nPhotograph by Lisa Whiting Photography
URL:https://counterpoints.org.uk/event/a-song-for-the-xeedho-late/
LOCATION:Whitechapel Gallery\, 77-82 Whitechapel High St\, London\, E1 7QX\, United Kingdom
CATEGORIES:Sound Art,Visual Arts
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://counterpoints.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/Fozia-Ismail_Credit-Lisa-Whiting-Photography-2.jpg
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