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DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20260611
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20260913
DTSTAMP:20260629T142247Z
CREATED:20260522T115031Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260629T142247Z
UID:10000618-1781164800-1789232400@counterpoints.org.uk
SUMMARY:Floating Together: Refugee Week Co-Commission by Malak Mattar
DESCRIPTION:A new public artwork commissioned by Choose Love\, Counterpoints and the Southbank Centre.\nResponding to the Refugee Week 2026 theme of ‘courage’\, and the Choose Love and Creative Visions themes ‘unique and united’ artist Malak Mattar has created a new installation in collaboration with young people from Ukraine and Greece. The commission is a bold public artwork inviting reflection on solidarity\, community and courage. \nMalak Mattar describes Floating Together\n‘Growing up by the sea in Gaza\, summer meant long days at the beach and the excitement of new colourful swimming floats that marked our journey from childhood to adulthood. Swan and turtle-shaped floats became symbols of joy and childhood. Over time\, the meaning of the sea changed. As life under blockade became difficult\, many young people began crossing the sea in search of a better life. Some reached new shores\, while others were lost along the way. \n‘The installation reflects both memories of my childhood and the realities of displacement. Inspired by swimming floats\, the work is large\, playful and illuminated with vibrant light\, especially at night\, honouring the many refugee journeys made in darkness\, while sending a message that refugees are seen\, welcomed and cared for. \n‘The patterns featured on the floats are created in collaboration with young people from Ukraine and Greece\, alongside drawings by children from Gaza\, expressing family life\, flowers\, dreams\, love and unity.’ \nThe installation is part of the Southbank Centre’s Riverside Sessions. \n  \nAbout Malak Mattar\nMalak Mattar (b. Gaza Strip) is a multidisciplinary Palestinian artist whose work is rooted in personal and collective experiences under occupation and siege. She began painting as a teenager\, using art as a form of survival and resistance. Her work has been exhibited internationally and is held in private and public collections\, including the British Museum. Mattar is also the Artistic Director of the Together for Palestine Concert and the author of the bestselling children’s book Sitti’s Bird. \nPhoto by Hossam Fazulla
URL:https://counterpoints.org.uk/event/floating-together/
LOCATION:Riverside Terrace\, Southbank Centre SE1 8XX\, SE1 8XX\, United Kingdom
CATEGORIES:Visual Arts
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://counterpoints.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/P1011707.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20260620
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20260901
DTSTAMP:20260708T153258Z
CREATED:20260522T145536Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260708T153258Z
UID:10000619-1781913600-1788220799@counterpoints.org.uk
SUMMARY:One Song @ Art House
DESCRIPTION:One Song is an audio-visual installation and community project by artist Kadir Karababa that explores how music carries memory\, identity and a sense of home across borders.\nFirst begun in 2024\, the project is an evolving archive of songs and stories developed with women who have personal experience of migration or seeking sanctuary. \nBuilt through participation and shared experience\, this iteration was developed with members of the Wakefield community. Each participant is invited to share a song that takes them back to the place they first called home. These songs form the foundation of the work\, bringing together individual memories into a wider collective portrait. \nThe project is inspired by the artist’s own family history of migration from Eastern Turkey to London\, and an interest in how songs are carried across borders while remaining rooted in the places they were first sung. \nThese songs are deeply personal\, connected to family\, language and everyday life\, and often carried across time and distance. For many\, singing becomes a way of reconnecting with places and experiences that are no longer physically present. \nPresented together\, One Song creates a shared space of listening. Each voice remains distinct\, while common themes of movement\, belonging\, loss and connection begin to emerge. \nRead more on The Art House website. \nOne Song was originally commissioned by Counterpoints Arts. This iteration has been supported by Arts Council England and Counterpoints Arts. To view the archive of songs that make up One Song and to read more about work visit The One Song website
URL:https://counterpoints.org.uk/event/one-song-art-house/
LOCATION:The Art House\, Drury Lane\, Wakefield\, WF1 2TE\, United Kingdom
CATEGORIES:Visual Arts
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/webp:https://counterpoints.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/one-song.webp
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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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