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DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20250913T100000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20260111T170000
DTSTAMP:20260503T014304
CREATED:20250901T154950Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250901T155359Z
UID:10000565-1757757600-1768150800@counterpoints.org.uk
SUMMARY:Ghafar Tajmohammad: If you throw a stone in the crowd\, someone’s going to get hurt
DESCRIPTION:Explore Ghafar Tajmohammad’s thought-provoking collection of paintings and hand-woven rugs\, called kilims\, reflecting on conflict\, home\, and the search for hope and resilience.\nBy combining painting\, hand-woven rugs\, and lived experiences\, Ghafar’s work responds to the ongoing global turmoil and its impact. Whilst seemingly distant\, such conflicts mark real lives\, especially those of civilians caught in the crossfire. Ghafar draws on his own experience of displacement as a British Afghan\, while also turning outward to wider struggles and shared hopes. \nCo-commissioned and presented as part of the Platforma Festival (October 2025)\, produced by Counterpoints Arts. \nAbout the exhibition \nThe exhibition’s title comes from a proverb shared with Ghafar by a fellow Afghan while talking about the bombings in Afghanistan. \nToday\, the phrase feels even more powerful against the backdrop of global conflicts. For Ghafar\, it reflects both feelings of helplessness and the hope that expressing the collective “crowd” might encourage solidarity and social connection. \nGhafar’s work talks about ideas like home\, belonging\, and migration of people moving from one place to another. \nHis art looks closely at the experiences of people from the Afghan community who have moved to new places\, especially to the UK. He uses painting in new and different ways to share these stories. \nFull exhibition details \nWhat to expect \nOne of the works in this exhibition is a collection of hand-woven\, painted rugs\, called kilims\, named “Love Letters.” This personal piece was inspired by a workshop Ghafar co-led with ArtRefuge at a refugee camp in the UK. \nDuring this workshop\, he invited participants to write and draw their initials using both Arabic and English letters. This simple act of writing one’s own initials became a powerful way for people to express identity\, memory\, and presence. \n“Love Letters” begins with these initials as a starting point\, not only to acknowledge the individuals who took part\, but also to open the space for others. \nAnother highlight is “Dirt Upon My Head”. It is made from one large canvas stretched over several square frames. Each frame represents a single home\, and together they suggest a neighbourhood or city frozen in a moment of impact. The canvas stretches out from the centre\, giving a feeling of breaking or tearing. \nAbout Ghafar Tajmohammad \nGhafar is of Afghan heritage and was displaced as a small child. He grew up in Southeast London\, graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Painting at Camberwell College of Arts and works as a Curatorial Project Manager at the Migration Museum. \nAbout Firstsite \nFirstsite is the East of England’s contemporary visual arts organisation where you can experience the most exciting developments in contemporary art\, and explore the rich artistic legacy cultivated by the East of England’s unique landscape and character. \nImage: Homage to Najia\, Fall of Kabul by Ghafar Tajmohammad\, courtesy of the artist.
URL:https://counterpoints.org.uk/event/ghafar-tajmohammad-if-you-throw-a-stone-in-the-crowd-someones-going-to-get-hurt/
LOCATION:Firstsite\, Lewis Gardens\, High Street\, Colchester\, CO1 1JH\, United Kingdom
CATEGORIES:Platforma,Visual Arts
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://counterpoints.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Homage-To-Najia-Fall-Of-Kabul.jpeg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20251004
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20251102
DTSTAMP:20260503T014304
CREATED:20250902T092007Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20251014T122103Z
UID:10000566-1759536000-1762041599@counterpoints.org.uk
SUMMARY:Bridging Landscapes II
DESCRIPTION:A group exhibition curated by Aisha Zia.\nPresented and co-commissioned as part of the Platforma Festival (October 2025) produced by Counterpoints Arts. \nOpening Hours:\nTuesday – Saturday: 10:00 AM – 4:00 PM\nClosed: Sunday & Monday\nAdmission: Free\nNo booking required \nFollowing its successful run at French Riviera Gallery in London and the Rich Mix in Bethnal Green\, Bridging Landscapes II comes to Peterborough Museum. \nThis powerful group exhibition features South Asian and MENA artists from across the UK\, including Zaineb Abelque\, Sarah Ali\, Mohammed Adel\, Aya Haidar\, Haroun Hayward\, Sofia Karim\, Rehan Jamil\, Kalpesh Lathigra\, Amak Mahmoodian\, Mohammed Tariq and Anusheh Zia. The exhibition explores the emotional and cultural impact of migration—whether through lived or inherited experience—and the deep\, diasporic threads that shape memory\, identity\, and belonging. \nA book accompanying the exhibition\, Carry the Shadows Home\, is available now\, published by 62 Gladstone Street and Pendle Press. \nImage: Will Not Protect Against Drowning\, by Aya Haidar \nAbout Platforma in Peterborough \nPlatforma 2025 in Peterborough is produced by 62 Gladstone Street\, a community-rooted arts space in the heart of Peterborough with a particular focus on supporting South Asian and MENA artists. Through exhibitions\, residencies\, and public programmes\, it provides a vital platform for underrepresented voices and fosters meaningful dialogue between artists and the wider community. \nPartners: Counterpoints Arts\, Landmark Theatres\, Peterborough Cultural Alliance\, Metal Peterborough\, Peterborough Presents\, Peterborough Museum\, HELP Charity & the Aziz Foundation \nDedication: “Our programme is dedicated to the innocent men\, women\, and children who have lost their lives\, those who have been displaced by war\, and all those seeking a safe place to call home.” \n62 Gladstone Street’s Platforma programme is supported by Arts Council England as and presented as part of the wider Platforma Festival across the East of England\, produced by Counterpoints Arts.
URL:https://counterpoints.org.uk/event/bridging-landscapes-ii/
LOCATION:Peterborough Museum and Art Gallery\, 51 Priestgate\, Peterborough\, PE1 1LF\, United Kingdom
CATEGORIES:Platforma,Visual Arts
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://counterpoints.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Will-Not-Protect-Against-Drowning.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20251004T080000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20251026T170000
DTSTAMP:20260503T014304
CREATED:20250930T120734Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20251006T154631Z
UID:10000577-1759564800-1761498000@counterpoints.org.uk
SUMMARY:Maria Proshkovska: Making Oddkin
DESCRIPTION:The interdisciplinary project Making Oddkin by Maria Proshkovska is presented as two parallel exhibitions: at OUTPOST Gallery in Norwich\, UK and at the Centre for Contemporary Art in the frontline city of Zaporizhzhia\, Ukraine.\nCo-commissioned and presented as part of the Platforma festival\, produced by Counterpoints Arts. \nMaria Proshkovska works with Ukrainian grain burnt by missile strikes as living evidence of loss\, resistance\, and the potential for recovery. The artist began this project in 2023\, presenting a five-hour performance Farina at the Museum of Modern Art in Bologna (MAMbo). Documentation of this performance was since purchased for the collection of Central Saint Martins College and is now part of the college’s curriculum. \nThe exhibitions in Zaporizhzhia and Norwich feature a photographic object\, new film\, and installation. This installation is largely made of adobe\, a material traditionally used in various cultures for construction\, symbolising the need for collective labor as an act of mutual support. \nProshkovska creates conditions for dialogue between the gallery spaces in Ukraine and the UK. Viewers in Norwich and Zaporizhzhia become co-habitors of a shared landscape\, formed through co-presence and mutual sensitivity. Making Oddkin is the search for new forms of closeness and responsibility between cultures\, based on shared values and care. \nMaria Proshkovska (b. 1986) is a conceptual and socially engaged artist from Kyiv\, who currently lives between Ukraine and the UK. Her work operates at the intersection of performance\, installation\, and feminist criticism\, exploring themes of memory\, trauma\, corporeality\, and gender-determined social processes. Proshkovska completed a master’s programme in Performance: Society at Central Saint Martins\, UAL. She is a scholarship holder of international programmes and has participated in numerous exhibitions in countries including Ukraine\, the United Kingdom\, Italy\, Austria\, Japan\, and Taiwan. Proshkovska’s works are held in the Central Saint Martins Museum & Study Collection\, MAMbo\, Shcherbenko Art Centre and in private collections. \nFilm screening and Q & A: 3pm Saturday 4th and 3pm Sunday 5th \n4.10-26.10 Thurs-Sun 12-6pm or by appointment
URL:https://counterpoints.org.uk/event/maria-proshkovska-making-oddkin/
LOCATION:OUTPOST Gallery\, 10b Wensum Street\, Norwich\, NR3 1HR\, United Kingdom
CATEGORIES:Platforma,Visual Arts
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://counterpoints.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Screen-Shot-2025-09-30-at-13.05.11.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20251014
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20251026
DTSTAMP:20260503T014304
CREATED:20250818T094751Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250819T082830Z
UID:10000550-1760400000-1761436799@counterpoints.org.uk
SUMMARY:Gaza Remains The Story
DESCRIPTION:Created by The Palestine Museum: “In loving memory of the late Hikmat Maher Kaddoura\, may his soul rest in eternal peace” \nPresented by Diss Palestine Solidarity as part of the Platforma Festival (October 2025) produced by Counterpoints Arts. \nGaza Remains the Story exhibits the cause and context of the Palestinian experience\, focusing on the land\, places\, and people of Gaza. The exhibition strives to inform\, educate\, and narrate stories of historical locations and cultural practices in Gaza\, providing a glimpse into Gaza’s arts\, aspirations\, and uniqueness—what remains of it in these harsh times. \nWhile the deafening noise of never-ending bombardment drowns out the daily life\, heritage\, artistic expression\, and creativity of the people of Palestine\, this exhibition strives to look behind the curtains of the theatre of war and conquest. By narrating the stories of Gaza and countering misinformation\, “Gaza Remains the Story” aims to provide a global audience with information and references to contextualise Gaza within Palestine\, the region\, and the world. This exhibition employs text\, drawings\, and audiovisual material to explore historical\, economic\, geographic\, demographic\, and creative aspects of life in Gaza. \n \n \nArtist: Malak Mattar\nTitle: When Family is the Only Shelter\, 2022 \nOil on Canvas\, 60 x 50cm\nCourtesy of the Ghiath and Nadia Sukhtian Collection
URL:https://counterpoints.org.uk/event/gaza-remains-the-story/
LOCATION:The Ballroom\, No 8 Marketplace\, Diss\, IP22 4AB\, United Kingdom
CATEGORIES:Platforma,Visual Arts
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=application/pdf:https://counterpoints.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/Platforma-Landscape-Artwork-Image.pdf
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20251014
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20251027
DTSTAMP:20260503T014304
CREATED:20250721T141103Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20251003T100517Z
UID:10000539-1760400000-1761523199@counterpoints.org.uk
SUMMARY:Confluence
DESCRIPTION:Confluence: a place where ideas merge or flow together\nAn exhibition curated and co-ordinated by Shathy Bano exploring cultural influence\, identity and belonging in the community with a two-week programme of collaborative artwork\, interactive workshops & conversations. \nCo-commissioned and presented as part of the Platforma Festival (October 2025) produced by Counterpoints Arts. \nCommunity gathering 18 October\, 1-4pm \nThis year community artist Shathy Bano has facilitated a series of 20 art sessions involving a total of over 40 participants with experience of migration in various small group settings. The sessions involved conversations exploring cultural influence\, memory\, identity and language\, using visual art as a tool for expression. \nThe exhibition at Anteros Arts Foundation brings all of the artwork together from different sessions and includes a programme of workshop activities that a free and drop-in. \nThe community gathering on the 18th is a celebration of the connections made by everyone who has participated in the projects. \nShathy Bano is a Bengali British visual artist with an extensive background in social work and therapeutic community art. Shathy focuses on cultural identity\, transformation and loss. As a child migrant herself\, her art practice draws on her life experience to create visual expressions of intersectional identity and cultural exchange through the generations\, representing how this relates to the evolving\, yet transitory notion of home and place. \nShathy has worked with Norfolk libraries and other community groups for several years leading art sessions. The creative sessions explores the links between culture\, language and place to explore belonging and connection working collaboratively with groups. \nThe exhibition is a collation of the various artwork undertaken over the past year through different projects and the connections and networks made. There is an opportunity to view the artwork\, and the two week programme provides a variety of art sessions and time and space for creativity and conversation. \n 
URL:https://counterpoints.org.uk/event/confluence/
LOCATION:Anteros\, 11-15 Fye Bridge Street\, Norwich\, NR31LJ\, United Kingdom
CATEGORIES:Platforma,Visual Arts
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://counterpoints.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/20250620_134133.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20251015
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20251020
DTSTAMP:20260503T014304
CREATED:20250902T120721Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250902T120829Z
UID:10000567-1760486400-1760918399@counterpoints.org.uk
SUMMARY:Back To Where We Came From
DESCRIPTION:Emanuela Cusin & Sarah Wood\nOpen: 11-5pm \nCo-commissioned and presented as part of the Platforma Festival (October 2025) produced by Counterpoints Arts. \nBack to Where We Came From is an installation made in response to St Peter’s\, Cambridge – an ancient church whose history is rooted in the idea of sanctuary. The church was not only a site of welcome for travellers arriving in the north of the city but was also\, until the early 17th century\, a site in which a fugitive could temporarily rest\, immune from arrest\, a space apart from the legal process of the state. \nNow in a time of closing borders\, when the idea about who belongs and who doesn’t is at the forefront of the world’s right-wing ideological preoccupation Back To Where We Came From will inhabit this historical space to ask how sanctuary today can operate to provide containment and enable reparation in the wider world. \nTaking the artist Gustav Metzger’s aesthetic response to the aftermath of WW2 deportation as a shared starting point artists Emanuela Cusin and Sarah Wood will create an installation that will offer visitors not only the space to imagine future possibilities that counter exclusionary political rhetoric but also to consider how art itself can model hospitality. \nKey works: \nBREAKING POINT \nEmanuela Cusin \nMixed media\, 2025 \nIn a time characterised by economic crises\, political conflict and natural disaster\, we find ourselves caught in a prolonged state of anticipation where anxiety about the future is born from our seeming inability to prevent further catastrophes. \nBreaking Point not only mobilises but also critically interrogates this dark presentiment and perceived powerlessness. Taking inspiration from the ever-changing nature of materials exposed to physical and environmental processes\, Gustav Metzger’s auto-destructive art manifesto and trauma studies\, the work creates a visual and poetic parallelism between the physical and psychological impact of destructive events.\nemanuelacusin.com \nLAND OF THE FREE \nSarah Wood \nMulti-media installation\, 2025 \nAlmost 3000 years ago the Assyrian empire deployed the policy of deportation for the very first time. 4\,000\,000 people were forcedly resettled over 250 years\, in the service of colonisation. \nFast-forward to the 21st century. In a time of spluttering political soundbite deportation continues to be the most common form of immigration enforcement across the world. It’s a policy that couples a fantasy of origin with the idea that resettlement is an action without consequence for the world’s settled populations. \nOut of sight\, out of mind? Land of the Free – will bring into focus the ethics and aesthetics of this economy of visibility/invisibility. Using family archives\, lessons from history and contemporary stories of forced removal\, Land of the Free will offer viewers the space to think about a process more usually elided from wider cultural view. \nsarahwoodworld.com \nThank you: \nAndrews Nairne\, Guy Haywood\, Tom Noblett and all the team (Kettle’s Yard\, Cambridge) \nKaren Moore (Churches Conservation Trust) \nTom Green and all the team (Counterpoints) \nRuth Campbell – Ekins and Sarah Steenhorst (METAL\, Peterborough)
URL:https://counterpoints.org.uk/event/back-to-where-we-came-from/
LOCATION:St Peter’s Church\, Castle St\, Cambridge\, United Kingdom
CATEGORIES:Platforma,Visual Arts
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://counterpoints.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Land-of-the-Free-Sarah-Wood-1-BW-square.png
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20251017
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20251020
DTSTAMP:20260503T014304
CREATED:20250914T075757Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20251015T121705Z
UID:10000572-1760659200-1760918399@counterpoints.org.uk
SUMMARY:Refugees Welcome Here
DESCRIPTION:Refugees Welcome Here: Cambridge Artworks welcomes refugees and asylum seekers.\nPresented as part of the Platforma Festival 2025\, produced by Counterpoints Arts. \nFriday 17 th October to Sunday 19 th October\n12 to 6pm\nPreview Friday 17 th October 7pm to 9pm \nThis show brings together the work of studio artists based at Cambridge Artworks and refugees in Cambridge. \nSeveral of the Artworks studio artists have been working alongside refugees and creating art about displacement for many years\, some are migrants or refugees themselves. This exhibition enables us to demonstrate our solidarity and continued\nsupport for refugees in Cambridge and the UK. \nContributing Artists\nJan Ayton\nAnna Brownsted\nRachel Dormor\nJill Eastland\nAli Hunte\nKiarash Khazaei\nSusan Mealing\nIdit Nathan\nMohammad Noureddini\nDell Olsen\nMojgan Rajabpour\nSally Todd\nSarah Wood\nRachel Wooller\nJohn Yayen\nSanam Yousef\nAdditional women refugees attending Cambridge Women’s Resources Centre \nMain image: “Sanam’s Journey”
URL:https://counterpoints.org.uk/event/refugees-welcome-here/
LOCATION:Cambridge Artworks and Artspace\, 5 Green's Road\, Cambridge\, CB4 3EF\, United Kingdom
CATEGORIES:Platforma,Visual Arts
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://counterpoints.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Sanams-Journey.jpg
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