Kalila wa Dimna:
Ancient Tales for Troubled Times
Art Exhibition
12 May to 11 June 2022 at P21 Gallery, London
Free Entry
About the project
Kalila wa Dimna: Ancient Tales for Troubled Times, art exhibition and public programme, is a collaboration between academic researchers, artists, curators, and community organisations. The project is inspired by the global journeys of an ancient collection of moral fables across time and place, language, religion and culture.
Known in Arabic as Kalila wa Dimna, the fables have a long and complex global history. Over the centuries they have been translated into more than 40 languages and read and re-interpreted almost continuously by different audiences. Kalila wa Dimna uses storytelling to understand the world and other people, revealing the messy complexity of life, the multiplicity of perspectives and voices that comprise it, and the fact that there exists not one world or truth, but many, and unequal at that.
Kalila wa Dimna: Ancient Tales for Troubled Times focuses on one chapter from the book called the ‘Tale of the Four Friends’ – a story about looking beyond perceived differences and working together to overcome adversity and build a sense of community and home. In a live exhibition and events series taking place from 12 May to 11 June 2022 at the P21 Gallery, experienced and emerging artists and community arts organisations become hakawatis or ‘tellers of tales’ and reinterpret the ‘Tale of the Four Friends’ for contemporary audiences through their own unique perspectives, resulting in a collection of mixed-media works addressing both universal and highly personal issues – including identity, community, migration, and intercultural relations.
Kalila wa Dimna’s global transmission exemplifies how culture is not fixed or static but rather in perpetual motion and created through contact and exchange between different civilisations. Ancient Tales for Troubled Times sheds light on the undeniable influence of Eastern cultures and languages on Western societies. Using a decolonizing lens, our hakawatis question who gets to tell stories and therefore who benefits from their transformative and generative potential. The project also explores the important role that stories have played in people’s experiences of migration, in building new communities, and in experiencing the world through different languages.
By approaching storytelling through various artistic mediums, the project aims to widen access to and engagement with the arts within diverse and often marginalised communities while promoting cross-cultural understanding.
Kalila wa Dimna: Ancient Tales for Troubled Times has developed out of the work of Language Acts and Worldmaking, a flagship project funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council’s Open World Research Initiative. It is principally supported by The National Lottery Fund, Arts Council England and Language Acts and Worldmaking. The exhibition is hosted by the P21 Gallery.
The Artists
Meet the project’s hakawatis (‘tellers of tales’), who will share with you their rich creative practice inspired by Kalila wa Dimna’s ancient tales, entrenched in community work and addressing important issues of our time!
Our Team
Our team includes passionate practitioners in different yet intersecting disciplines, from literary and cultural research to social sciences, arts practice, and education. The breadth of their experiences enables them to provide audiences with an engaging and thought provoking exhibition and programme of public events!
ONLINE TALKS
Join artists and researchers to discuss Kalila wa Dimna and other medieval texts shaping East West encounters, learn about art practice in relation to lost histories, supporting fragile human connections through collaborative textile arts and producing art within challenging and unstable environments. In addition to the in depth conversations join a short immersive experience with artist Vaishali Prazmari’s miniature arts demonstration!
EXHIBITION EVENTS
From textile and animation workshops and translation games to stimulating talks - find out about our programme of free public events, featuring artists, curators, storytellers, musicians and researchers!
Kalila wa Dimna and ‘The Tale of the Four Friends’
Find out more about the book and tale that have inspired the exhibition and its events!
‘The Four Friends' from Kalila wa Dimna by East London Textile Arts
Kalila wa Dimna online storytelling animation by Artist and ELTA Leader, Celia Ward www.celiaward.net
Based on a version of the tale created by the Children's Museum of Indianapolis (used with permission)
Kalila wa Dimna: ‘a remarkable document of the history of contacts between civilisations.’
— François De Blois
Project Funders & Host Venue
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The Arts Council England, The National Lottery Fund
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Language Acts & Worldmaking
Language Acts and Worldmaking is a flagship project funded by the Arts & Humanities Research Council Open World Research Initiative (OWRI), which seeks to showcase the crucial role that languages play, not just within arts and humanities but also on a wider scale in relation to key contemporary issues, by foregrounding language’s power to shape how we live and make our worlds.
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P21 Gallery
The P21 Gallery is an independent London based charitable trust established to promote contemporary Arab art and culture. The two-story venue in central London is planned to maximise the potential of contemporary art as a discourse, through multimedia exhibition spaces, supporting facilities for public functions in addition to workshops for training and education.