A Collective Art Exhibition Created by Dima Karout and Local Residents
Showing Art Pieces and Written Stories by:
Jenan Ghatim, Helen Leila Alazhar, Rehab Maghribi, Nabilah Abdulfaraj, Lina Alchami, Ali A. Al-shimar, Adam Farhat, Miriam Addada, Nasrin Trabulsi, Nahid Poladi, Phayaphi Alkhayoon, Rami Bassam, Mariam Bassam, Cassia Clarke, Zineb Dinia, Manas Ghanem, and Najlaa El-Ageli.
Designed and curated by Dima Karout.
Over the past year, Grand Junction has collaborated with the local Middle Eastern and North African community through workshops, inviting cultural exchange and connection. Participants worked with artist facilitators Alaa Alsaraji and Michelle Butcher to create their art pieces using different techniques.
In January, we invited art curator Dima Karout to engage with our work and to curate the results of these encounters into an art exhibition to showcase the creative talents and multicultural knowledge of our community. As well as designing the exhibition, Dima led conversations and collaborated closely with the participants to create some of the art pieces on display, and in June they co-designed the Reflective Space.
This exhibition combines different art mediums, narrating the unique journeys, evolving identities, and hidden histories of places and people, through the eyes of local residents.
We hope you enjoy exploring these places and leave inspired to contribute to a world where every story, every voice, and every culture is honoured and remembered.
تعاون غراند جنكشن خلال العام الماضي مع المجتمع المحلي للسكان الذين ترجع أصولهم إلى الشرق الأوسط وشمال أفريقيا من خلال ورش العمل والدعوة إلى التبادل والتواصل الثقافيين، وعمل المشاركون مع الفنانتين والمنسقتين آلاء السراجي وميشيل بوتشر لابتكار قطعهم الفنية باستخدام تقنيات مختلفة
دعونا منظمة المعارض ديما قاروط في شهر يناير/كانون الثاني للمشاركة في عملنا وتحويل نتائج هذه اللقاءات إلى معرض فني لعرض المواهب الإبداعية والمعرفة المتعددة الثقافات لمجتمعنا المحلي، وبالإضافة إلى تصميم المعرض، قادت ديما المحادثات وتعاونت بشكل وثيق مع المشاركين لابتكار بعض القطع الفنية المعروضة، وفي شهر يونيو/حزيران، شارك المشاركون في تصميم مساحة التأمل
يجمع هذا المعرض بين وسائط فنية مختلفة ويسرد قصص الرحلات الفريدة والهويات المتطورة والتواريخ الخفية للأشخاص والأماكن من منظور السكان المحليين
نأمل أن تستمتعوا باستكشاف هذه الأماكن وأن تغادروا ولديكم الإلهام للإسهام في عالم يتم فيه تكريم كل قصة وكل صوت وكل ثقافة وتذكُّرها
CURATOR INTRODUCTION
Collective Exhibition
Our collective exhibition celebrates the unique journey individuals undertake when crossing borders, and offers insight into the multicultural heritage of Londoners from the Middle East and North Africa region. The art pieces displayed here, created by local residents, capture distinct moments and provide a deeper understanding of the richness that migration brings to our communities.
The narratives behind these art pieces are diverse, yet they reveal a common theme: the exploration of our rich and evolving identity through the lens of places. Connection to nature, belonging to a community, and inspiring moments of resilience are all present in the work participants created together. The diversity of their stories in different cities has allowed us to weave together an expansive narrative ranging from distant memories to unexpected encounters in London.
Through time and conflicts, the landscapes of our childhood relocate to occupy our souls; but throughout this collaboration, the participants decided to honour these disappearing landscapes by bringing them back to life. Designing this exhibition, at this moment in time, made me reflect on the privilege we all have to be standing here today. Having a space to investigate the intricate layers of a place, express our stories, practice listening, and stand in solidarity.
A privilege to exercise the right to be.
Reflective Space
In a world often marked by conflict, art holds the power to heal. It offers a vital platform to resist forced disappearance and to document our shared humanity.
Inside the chapel, we designed a reflective space to express our solidarity with innocent civilians and stand against the erasure of indigenous people, landscapes, and cultures. A space for Palestine, Sudan, Iraq, Syria, Libya, Lebanon and Yemen, where we designed a participatory art installation to unfold across the wall and floor. Using wired frames and a large shroud with handwritten poetry, the participants recite the words of their favourite Arab poets. With this parallel space, we aim to acknowledge suffering, honour memories, celebrate resistance, and defend the right to words.
As you journey through the exhibition, we invite you to engage with these internal landscapes and to reflect on the places that you carry within.
Dima Karout
Art Curator and Exhibition Designer
Click on the themes below to explore The Places We Carry digital exhibition:
The Places We Carry marks the end of Grand Junction’s two-year project, ‘Our Shared Heritage’, funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund. Through this project, we have expanded on the heritage stories that we tell at Grand Junction and explored and celebrated the stories of local communities from the Middle East and North Africa. This project seeks to dismantle barriers that exist to engaging with the Victorian heritage of St Mary Magdalene’s Church by inviting local communities into the space to tell their own stories. These stories explore events that took place in their home countries and ones of arriving in London and settling in West London.
يمثل المعرض خاتمة مشروع غراند جنكشن الذي يحمل عنوان “تراثنا المشترك” والذي استمر لمدة عامين بتمويل من صندوق يانصيب التراث الوطني، ومن خلال هذا المشروع، توسعنا في قصص التراث التي نرويها في غراند جنكشن واستكشفنا قصص المجتمعات المحلية التي ترجع أصولها إلى الشرق الأوسط وشمال أفريقيا واحتفينا بها، ويسعى هذا المشروع إلى تفكيك الحواجز التي تحول دون التفاعل مع التراث الفيكتوري لكنيسة القديسة مريم المجدلية من خلال دعوة أبناء المجتمعات المحلية إلى هذه المساحة لسرد قصصهم، وتستكشف هذه القصص الأحداث التي وقعت في بلدانهم الأصلية وأحداث وصولهم إلى لندن واستقرارهم في غرب لندن
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