The Mosaic Rooms was proud to be part of the Nour Festival organised by the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. Taking place throughout October and November, the festival celebrates contemporary culture from the Middle East and North Africa.
As part of this The Mosaic Rooms presented, Equinox, From Beirut to London the first UK solo exhibition by Syrian artist Lawand. The exhibition featured new paintings and drawings by the artist, made during a prolonged stay in Beirut, Lebanon. Highlights from the associated programme included the launch of our specially commissioned art and poetry book entitled Effigies. The publication includes drawings by Lawand and poems by award winning British poet Pascale Petit written in response to Lawand’s work. Pascale Petit also ran a stimulating poetry workshop at The Mosaic Rooms designed to encourage participants to create poetry inspired by the art on display in the exhibition.
Other highlights included a reading by the greatest living Somali poet Maxamed Ibraahin Warsame ‘Hadraawi’; a Syrian supper club with Nadah Saleh hosted for the first time at The Mosaic Rooms; a season of film screenings specially selected from the London Kurdish Film Festival; a panel discussion with regional experts on the issues facing the Kurds and question of Kurdish nationalism; as well as a number of literary discussions including ‘The Wall’ with William Sutcliffe, ‘The Lady from Tel Aviv’ with Raba'i al-Madhoun and ‘Shadow Lives’ with Victoria Brittain. Please visit the recorded lectures section on our website to listen to any of these events.