Friday Late x Shubbak: Body as a Vessel

Co-curated with the V&A, the Late explores the body as an artistic medium, transforming it into an expressive site of wisdom, resistance, sense-making, healing and joy. From dynamic performances, outdoor fashion installations, digital encounters to somatic experiences, join the artists in examining histories and lived realities together, weaving new narratives beyond the present moment.

All events are free, and places are designated on a first-come, first-served basis unless stated otherwise. Filming and photography will take place at this event. If you have any access requirements, please let us know in advance by emailing accessibility@vam.ac.uk 

Please note if the V&A or any of the activations reaches capacity, we will allow access on a one-in, one-out basis. 

#FridayLate 

@shubbakfestival 

A 

DJ Set by Basma
The Grand Entrance, Cromwell Road 

Join Basma’s set inspired by wedding anthems and eclectic folk of Sudan, the Sahel and the Horn of Africa, and beyond. Basma is the host of Khartoum Arrivals on NTS Radio and the co-host of radio show and record label Hear, Sense and Feel. 

@ogbasma 

 

B 

TootArd  

The Raphael Cartoons, Room 48a 

Performances at 19:50, 20:50 

Duration: 25 minutes 

Experience live music by TootArd established by brothers Hasan and Rami Nakhleh. Originally from the occupied Golan Heights, their boundary-pushing sounds transcend genres, blending global pop hooks, quarter-tone melodies, retro funk, disco, and dance music inspired by SWANA traditions.  

@tootard 

 

C 

Nazar  

The Globe, Europe 1600—1814, Room 4 

Duration: 20 minutes for each participant 

Please note, the sessions have a limited capacity. Sign up from 18:30 – 19:30 at the Globe. 

Led by Lara Habib Kobeissi, Nazar is a tender, intimate encounter between participant and performer, merging live performance with VR. It unfolds as experiential poetry within evil-eye protection sessions originating from Southern Lebanon, shared by the artist and her mother across decades of regional unrest and their eventual separation. The individual VR experience can also be viewed on screen. 

@larakob 

 

D  

An Artist’s Manual Against Apartheid 

Islamic Middle East, Room 42, The Jameel Gallery 

Drop in  

Immerse yourselves in the poetic experience unpeeling layers of cultural resistance. Conceived by Shubbak and executed by the duo chamæleon (Farah Chamma & LIEV). The work is an open-source knowledge-sharing platform fueled by poetry, connecting us to ancestries of artistic defiance and explorations of Palestine as a metaphor for many interconnected struggles.  

@___chamaeleon

E 

Create your own scented pouch 

Exhibition Road Courtyard  

Drop in from 18:30 – 20:45 

Explore Arab culture through scent and nostalgia. Create your own scented pouch to take home. Relax and make a unique pouch with your own blend of spices, herbs and dried flowers. Produced and led by the V&A Youth Collective. 

 

F 

Kazna Asker Presents ‘Through the Eyes of a Bride’  

The John Madejski Garden  

Installation on view from 18:30 – 20:45 

20-minute catwalk at 19:20, 20:20 

Celebrate fashion, culture, and community through the perspective of an Arab bride, featuring dance, music, material culture and Shubbak’s signature programme ‘People’s Catwalk’ as expressions of family and heritage. Kazna is a multidisciplinary artist, curator, and designer whose practice explores identity, migration, heritage, and collective storytelling.  

@kazna.asker 

G  

Shubbak Sofa Sessions 

The Poynter Room, Main Café 

Drop in from 18:30 – 21:00 to meet the festival team 

Please note that the core team are present from 18:30 – 18:50 and 20:40 – 21:00. The event includes food items which may contains allergens 

Have a cup of tea and dates with the Shubbak family. Find out more about the festival, or simply relax and have a chat. The experience is rooted in the ethos of Arab hospitality. 

@shubbakfestival 

H 

Panel Discussion: 15 Years of Arab arts in the UK 

The Lydia and Manfred Gorvy Lecture Theatre 

19:45 

Duration: 50 minutes  

Join us in this panel discussion reflecting on 15 years of Arab & SWANA arts and culture in UK. Shubbak’s Executive Director, Dr Dima Mekdad will be in conversation with playwright Hassan Abdulrazzak, artist Aya Haidar and V&A curator Rachel Dedman. Together they will share a plurality of perspectives, observations and experiences on cultural shifts and trends. 

@dima_mkd 

@iamayahaidar

@baghdadwedding

@racheldedman 

I 

Gut Feelings 2.0 

Tapestries, Room 94, Level 2  

Drop in from 18:30 – 21:30 

Explore the forgotten lives of gender-marginalised people in 19th Century Iran through Kasra Jalilipour’s installation - a speculative archive inspired by the art and literature of the Qajar era. Utilising 3D animation hologram displays and sculpture, the artist’s work often draws on pre-modern cultural and religious practices with interest in the erotic and humour.  

@kasrajalilipour 

 

J 

Baraka Obscura 

Prince Consort Gallery, Room 110 

Drop-in from 18:30 – 21:30 

Please note this event includes food items which may contains allergens 

Encounter one of the smallest containers of cultural heritage: a black seed, long known as ‘a cure for everything but death’ in historical Arab context. In this installation by Yasmeen Ayyashi, explore the seed as a conduit to new imaginaries, diving into its lore, material states and poetics through embodied, sensory exchange. Collaborators include Bluman Associates and Stochastic Resonance. 

 

@yasmeen.ayyashi 

@bluman_associates 

@stochasticresonance 

K 

Athar / أثر : Notes in the Margins of the City 

Photography Centre, Room 98, The Kusuma Gallery  

Drop in from 18:30 – 21:30 

Be part of the living archive of SWANA memory across London through Athar; the first digital youth led Arab anti-archive, by Young Shubbak in collaboration with their elders. Through oral histories, images, textiles and objects, you are invited to immerse in intimately shared stories of the community and add your own. 

@shubbakfestival 

L 

The Park (Dancing on the Rubble of Empire) 

National Art Library 

Film on loop from 18:30 – 21:00. A special selection of books will be also available for view. 

Duration: 34 minutes 

Imperial exhibitions have deeply shaped British cultural institutions including the formation of the V&A. This film, by Arwa Aburawa and Turab Shah, meditates on the colonial remnants lodged in our lives and asks what it means to celebrate, play, and belong amid the rubble of empire. 

Supported by the V&A’s Jameel Programme