Bouchra Khalili: Circles and Storytellers
18.02.26—14.06.26
Open Wed-Sat, 11am-6pm, Sun 12-5pm, Tue by appointmentFree entry
How do we turn a theatre stage into a space for new civic imaginations?
Circles and Storytellers is the first public UK solo exhibition by French-Moroccan artist and educator Bouchra Khalili. It presents interconnected works The Circle Project (2023) and The Public Storyteller (2024), marking the conclusion of Khalili’s decade-long exploration of the overlooked history of the Mouvement des Travailleurs Arabes (MTA) and its theatre groups, Al Assifa and Al Halaka.
Active between 1973 and 1977, these collectives of Maghrebi undocumented workers used theatre as a tool for social justice, artistic freedom, and community-building. The works focus on the forgotten candidacy of Djelalli Kamal, an MTA member and Al Assifa performer who ran in the 1974 French presidential election as “the candidate of those who cannot vote.”
The circular formations of Al Assifa and Al Halaka, meaning “the circle” and “the assembly” in Arabic, guide both the works and their display, reflecting Khalili’s meditation on storytelling, intergenerational memory, and alternative visions of belonging and civic life.
The exhibition is generously supported by Arts Council England, the Elephant Trust and Fluxus Art Projects.
With support from Gallo Acoustics.
Bouchra Khalili, The Public Storyteller, 2024. Video and 16mm film transferred to video, color and black & white, sound, 18:23 min.
© Bouchra Khalili. Courtesy of the artist and mor charpentier.
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ARTIST BIO
Bouchra Khalili is a French-Moroccan artist, born in 1975 in Casablanca. She lives in Vienna and works itinerantly. She graduated in Film & Media Studies at Sorbonne Nouvelle and Visual Arts at the Ecole Nationale d’Arts de Paris-Cergy. Encompassing film, video, installation, photography, printmaking, publishing and textile, Khalili’s practice explores imperial and colonial continuums as epitomized by contemporary instances of illegal migration and the memory of anti-colonial struggles and international solidarity.
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Mosaic Rooms is generously supported by Al-Qattan Charitable Trust.
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