The Mosaic Rooms

Alongside archival materials, works in the exhibition include:

A newly commissioned film, A Letter (Side B), by Larry Achiampong looks at the affective impact of colonialism, immigration and separation on two brothers living in Britain and Ghana. The work forms part of a new project titled GH0ST_DATA_, a new series of films by the artist delving into the relationship between depression, black masculinity, and digital anxiety. The film explores how the past interrupts and impacts in the present and incorporates recent footage filmed by Achiampong in Ghana as well as archival footage from The Museum of African Art: The Veda and Dr Zdravko Pecar Collection in Belgrade, Serbia. Speaking from a deeply personal perspective, the film also points to the wider social and institutional experiences.

Nika Autor’s new commission looks at the construction of Šamac-Sarajevo railway in 1947 by thousands of youth brigadiers from around the world. Bringing to the fore differing temporal, social, and political realities, the film contrasts the construction of the railways with the continuing displacement of refugees moving across the Balkan route. The film ends with portraits of Palestinian women who have travelled the route, as it reflects on the impossible futures that were imagined.

Alia Farid’s Mezquitas de Puerto Rico (Hatillo) traces lesser-known histories of Arab and South Asian migration to South America and the Caribbean. In an ongoing series of handwoven prayer rugs Farid documents the Mosques found in Latin America and the Caribbean. Photographs of these architectural sites are then interpreted into rug motifs by traditional weavers in Iran. Part of a growing and evolving patchwork, the rug points to entangled colonial histories, and collective experiences of resistance and displacement. 

KURS present a new series of drawings, banners, and a zine derived from research on speeches delivered by delegations during the conferences of the Non-Aligned Movement. Erasing yet leaving the original legible, the work seeks to highlight the unrealised potential of the movement’s values. Synthesising non-aligned principles and reappropriating this material into contemporary struggles, the collective’s new commission bridges the political, revolutionary, and poetic. Their freedom is indivisible zine is available in the bookshop, proceeds will be donated to earthquake disaster relief charities for Kurdistan, Syria, and Turkey.

Basim Magdy’s experimental short film A 240 Second Analysis of Failure and Hopefulness (with Coke, Vinegar and other Tear Gas Remedies) interrogates the destruction that takes place on sites of construction. The artist uses substances that chemically alter the film, both technically deteriorating the film stock and creating something new. Magdy’s interest in perpetuating cycles of uncertainty and expectation is also seen in the commemorative plaque installed outside, A Sign for Remembrance. It acts as a signifier of something lost and an invitation for creation. 

Love Poem for City Dreamers is a public artwork commission featuring a poem written by Basim Magdy on the burden of passing time and the melancholy of ideas and experiences unrealised. The billboard, co-designed with Marwan Kaabour can be seen at Burdett Road/Midlothian Road in East London for two weeks (20/02/2023 —5 /03/2023).

Alongside contemporary works and archival materials, a small selection of works from the art collection of non-aligned countries (part of the Center pf Contemporary Art of Montenegro fund), selected by The Art of Non-aligned Collection Laboratory (a project by the Centre for Contemporary Art of Montenegro) is shown in London for the first time. The collection holds around 800 artworks from 56 non-aligned countries. Shown here are works selected by curators who have been active carers and guardians of the collection for over 30 years. The selection includes works by Inji Efflatoun, Kareem Dabbah, Choukri Mesli and Khadeir Al Shakarji.