The Wick List

Doing Liverpool Arab Arts Festival

The UK’s longest running festival of Arab arts and culture returns in July for its 23rd edition. Featuring the best UK and international Arab artists, the multi-artform programme of live and online events explores the complexities of the climate emergency in the Middle East and North African (MENA) region today.

Highlights of the launch programme include Eating The Copper Apple, a one-woman show exploring identity, culture and displacement by poet Lisa Luxx; and Grounds for Concern, a new installation by artist Jessica El Mal that questions the concept of land ownership and the boundaries enforced by human-made borders.

In August, Youcef Hadjazi’s poweful new performance film, Trauma Then, Trauma Now, will be shown at Liverpool’s Royal Standard. Taking as its subject the Algerian Civil War, it looks at collective and transgenerational trauma in post-colonial nations.

Not in Liverpool? Listen to What Happened in Baghdad, a new podcast by Kamel Saeed featuring creatives that once called the Iraqi capital home. There’s also a rich film programme to sink your teeth into.

The full schedule of events for September, October and November has yet to be released, but highlights include a new LAAF commission that brings together 22 Arab artists, activists and creatives from across the MENA region; and Threads, a new multidisciplinary performance and digital work that explores stories of migration, disability and the passage of time. With so much to see and do, it’s worth planning ahead. Enjoy!

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Dates
16 July 2021 — 14 November 2021
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The Wick Culture - Frieze New York 2025. Image courtesy of Frieze
The Wick List

Viewing Frieze New York at The Shed

The Wick Culture - Suzanne Blank Redstone, Lifelines (PASSING THROUGH-JACK'S LIFE), 2017, Powdercoated aluminium on painted tricoya, 183 x 122 x 17cm. Image courtesy of the artist and CLOSE
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The Wick List

Viewing Suzanne Blank Redstone: Catching Light at CLOSE Gallery

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The Wick List

Viewing Encounters: Giacometti x Huma Bhabha at the Barbican Centre

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The Wick List

Viewing Joanna Allen: Subconscious Playground at Bowman Sculpture

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The Wick List

Viewing Lou Zhenggang: Shizen at Almine Rech

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The Wick List

Viewing Rachel Rossin: The Totalists at Albion Jeune