2023

Freedom Women Collective: Tomorrow

For this studio exhibition by Freedom Women Collective, Tomorrow is an enduring reference to hope, belief and self-determination. In every language, tomorrow can be a promise, a practical arrangement or a philosophical proposition. It is always a way of looking to the future, together.

An IWM 14-18 NOW Legacy Fund commission in partnership with Freedom Festival Arts Trust, the artists weaved stories from Ethiopia, Libya, Somalia, Syria and Sudan using visual and textile art, sculpture, performance, poetry and photography. At the heart of the exhibition, their slideshow film Tomorrow is an exploration of ownership of representation and memory of displacement. During the festival and on Saturdays, the collective held special events in the studio to share experiences of loss, resistance, resilience and survival.

Freedom Women Collective are women who survived war, conflict and persecution: artists Arafa Gouda, Nisreen Barazi, Gaida Dirar, Shuke Halake Aeroro and Faisa Omar, with Lee Karen Stow and curator Sarah Perks.

Read the blog

Watch the documentary: