About Shubbak
A window on contemporary Arab culture
Shubbak (meaning ‘window’ in Arabic) is London’s largest biennial festival of contemporary Arab culture. Founded in 2011 by the Mayor of London, Shubbak is now an independent charity (charity number: 1150374) whose founding Chair was Omar al-Qattan. Shubbak connects London audiences and communities with the best of contemporary Arab culture through ambitious festival programmes of premieres and commissions of visual arts, film, music, theatre, dance, literature and debate. We work with arts institutions in London and internationally.
“[A] triumphant celebration of Arab contemporary culture”
The Majalla
“The world’s biggest festival of Arab culture”
Sunday Times
“The festival speaks of restless societies that are questioning themselves”
Peter Aspden, Financial Times
Shubbak 2019
28 June–14 July 2019
Shubbak has become a key moment in the arts calendar of the UK and the Arab World, bringing new and unexpected voices alongside established artists to new audiences every two years. This year’s festival featured more than 150 artists in over 60 events across London from 28 June–14 July 2019. Explore the festival guide to see what happened. Follow us on social media or join our mailing list for the latest festival news and announcements.
Past Festivals
Shubbak Festival 2017
Shubbak’s 2017 Festival included over 130 artists, originating from 18 Arab countries, across 70 events in more than 40 venues across London between 1-16 July 2017. The festival featured 16 full days of concerts, performances, screenings, talks, exhibitions and installations, performing to a total audience of over 50,000. See Shubbak 2017 in pictures or watch a few of our favourite moments from the festival.
2017 Shubbak Festival Guide PDF
2017 Shubbak Festival highlights
Shubbak Festival 2015
Shubbak’s 2015 Festival presented over 60 events across London from 11-26 July 2015. The festival featured 16 full days of concerts, performances, screenings, debates, exhibitions and installations from over 100 international artists, as well as over 30 artists based in the UK. See Shubbak 2015 in pictures or watch highlights from the festival.
2015 Shubbak Festival Guide PDF
2015 Shubbak Festival highlights
Shubbak Festival 2013
Shubbak’s 2013 festival took place over 15 days in the summer of 2013, presenting over 55 events, spread across 42 venues, attracting an audience of over 50,000 people. We brought together a wonderful range of partners, from London’s largest museums to intimate theatres, from the largest concert halls to specialist cinemas. See the 2013 festival guide below for further details.
Shubbak Festival 2011
Initiated by the Mayor of London, the Shubbak Festival 2011 was the first of its kind in Europe. A festival devoted to contemporary Arab writers, photographers, painters, directors, composers and other creative artists. It was an opportunity not just for the Middle East curious, but for resident Arabs keen to learn more about their own region and share in its accomplishments.
Who We Are
Eckhard Thiemann
Artistic Director
Eckhard Thiemann has been artistic director of Shubbak since 2012. Previously he was a producer for the London 2012 Festival and the Cultural Olympiad, curated the Liverpool Arabic Arts Festival (2011), OUTSPOKEN – NEW PERFORMANCE FROM ARAB ARTISTS (2010) and the dance season African Crossroads (2009). He currently also works as Programming Associate – Dance for The Lowry, one of the UK’s largest arts centres, and was Artistic Co-curator of the Oslo International Dance Festival in 2017.
Daniel Gorman
Executive Director (until end of July 2019)
Daniel Gorman joined the Shubbak team in 2014 and delivered the 2015 and 2017 festival. Daniel is a co-founder of Highlight Arts, who have organised UK-based international arts festivals and events since 2007, including projects working with artists in Iraq and Syria. Daniel is a National Arts Strategies ‘CEO Community and Culture’ 2015 fellow and a British Council Cultural Leadership International fellow.
Farès K Moussa
Incoming Executive Director from Sept 2019
Farès joins Shubbak from Strode Theatre in Somerset, where he has been director since 2017. Before that he worked across the Arab world running a cultural tour company, and as an impact mitigation consultant mainly in Libya until 2011. He was also an active board member of Leith Theatre Trust in Edinburgh. Prior to this he was a House Manager at the Royal Opera House and a councillor for London Borough of Sutton. Farès maintains active research interests in the Anthropology of arts practice, with a regional specialism in North Africa.
Taghrid Choucair-Vizoso
Programme and Engagement Producer
Taghrid Choucair-Vizoso joined Shubbak in the summer of 2018. She is co-founder and co-director of At Home in Gaza and London, a cross-cultural digital performance project bringing together artists and audiences in the two cities. She produced and co-programmed the 2018 AWAN – Arab Women Artists Now Festival in London. As a practitioner and associate with Kazzum, she leads engagement programmes with young refugees and asylum seekers in the UK.
Alice Guthrie
Literature Curator & Producer
Alice Guthrie is a freelance translator, editor and linguist specialising in contemporary Arabic literature and media. Her work has appeared in a broad range of international publications and venues since 2008, and has been recognised with various grants and awards – most recently the Jules Chametzky Translation Prize 2019.
Elhum Shakerifar
Film Curator & Producer
Elhum Shakerifar is a BAFTA nominated & BFI Vision Awarded producer, producing and distributing documentaries through her company Hakawati with the core ethos that a good story is all in the telling. Credits include A Syrian Love Story (Sean McAllister), Almost Heaven (Carol Salter) and Even When I Fall (Sky Neal and Kate McLarnon). Elhum is also MENA programmer for London Film Festival was nominated for Arab British Centre’s Award for Culture 2017 and was recipient of the WFTV Factual Award 2018.
Virginia Pisano
Contextual Events (Consultant)
Virginia Pisano is working as a consultant on contextual events for Shubbak 2019, supported by the Erasmus for Young Entrepreneurs program. She has worked as program coordinator for several cultural organizations focusing on the Arab world and the Mediterranean space, including the Medinea network at the Aix-en-Provence Festival and the Transcultural Music Program at the Royaumont Foundation. Virginia has recently begun doctoral research that investigates a network of festivals supporting Arab artists, and is part of the Visiting Research program at the School of Oriental and African Studies. She also works in radio documentary production.
Project Producers
Arts Canteen, Vyvienne Abla, Alia Alzoubi, Yasmeen Elkhoudary, MARSM, Will Sandy, Axel Satgé
Extended Team
Production Manager: Jessica Hudsley
PR: Anna Arthur
Marketing: Mobius Industries
Website: Bullet Creative
Evaluation Consultant: Sophie Ahmad
Shubbak Trustees
Aaron Cezar
Aaron Cezar is the founding Director of Delfina Foundation, where he develops and oversees its interrelated programme of residencies, exhibitions and public platforms. He sits on numerous boards, committees and advisory groups such as All Change Arts, Alserkal Avenue, Shubbak, Davidoff Art Initiative, Caspian Arts Foundation, the Marrakech Biennale, the Kamel Lazaro Foundation and the Jarman Award 2012 among many others. Aaron has first degrees in Economics and Dance from Princeton University and a postgraduate degree in the Creative Industries from King’s College London.
Lynn Gaspard
Lynn Gaspard is the Managing Director of Middle-East specialist press Saqi Books. A fiercely independent forum for writers and artists from around the world, Saqi has made its mark as a publisher unafraid of taking risks, championing works by minority writers from the Middle East and beyond. Gaspard is a member of English PEN’s Writers in Translation Committee and of the MFest Expert Advisory Group, and was previously on the Nour Festival of Arts Steering Committee. She is the editor of the satirical collection Don’t Panic, I’m Islamic.
Sumantro Ghose
Sumantro Ghose is an Arts Producer, Curator and Cultural Strategist with over 20 years’ experience in museums and exhibitions, festivals, audience development and cultural diplomacy. Most recently he has been Managing Director of the London Design Biennale, and was previously responsible for exhibitions and museum programmes at Dubai Culture and Arts Authority. Prior to joining Dubai Culture, Sumantro was Deputy Director, Cultural Diplomacy Programmes at Qatar Museums in Doha. In the UK, Sumi has worked and consulted for a range of cultural and educational institutions including Tate, National Portrait Gallery, Frieze, Sotheby’s Institute, Richmond University and the American Institute for Foreign Study and was Acting Chief Executive and Director of Cultural Programmes at Asia House.
Jo Glanville
Jo Glanville is a journalist, writer and campaigner for freedom of expression. She has held senior positions at English PEN and Index on Censorship, and is currently a visiting fellow at the Arbeitsstelle Holocaustliteratur, Giessen University.
Almir Koldzic
Almir is a Co-Founder and Co-Director of Counterpoints Arts – a leading national organisation in the field of arts, migration and social justice, supporting the arts by, about and with refugees and migrants. His experiences in this context include leading on developing strategy and identity for Refugee Week UK Festival; developing Platforma – arts and refugees national network; building meaningful and long term collaborations with leading inter/national arts, cultural and advocacy organisations; and producing a wide range of events and commissions relating to displacement.
Maysoon Pachachi (Chair)
Educated in Iraq, the USA and Britain, Maysoon graduated from the London Film School and has directed 9 documentary films, including the prize-winning Iranian Journey, Bitter Water about a Palestinian camp in Beirut, Return to the Land of Wonders about her return to Iraq in 2004 and Our feeling took the pictures: Open Shutters Iraq about a remarkable photographic project. She has taught film directing and editing in Jerusalem and Gaza for the Jerusalem Film Institute, European Union and at Birzeit University near Ramallah. In 1999 she co-founded Act Together: Women’s Action for Iraq in London and in 2004, helped to set up the free-of-charge IFTVC film-training centre in Baghdad.
Shadia El Dardiry
Shadia El Dardiry is a solicitor at Bates Wells Braithwaite, known for its leading role in the charity and social enterprise sector. Shadia comes from a human rights background, and prior to joining Bates Wells Braithwaite worked on human rights and migration issues in Europe, the Middle East, and North Africa. She has engaged in EU- and national-level advocacy as well as capacity building of local organisations. Alongside this, she has had a longstanding interest in the relationship between art and politics in the MENA region, with a particular focus on 20th and 21st century literature from the region, and in art as a form of expression for migrants and refugees. Shadia holds a Masters in Political Science and a BA (Hons) in Political Science and Economics from McGill University.
Fady Alrayyes
Fady Alrayyes is a Principal at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), an institution established to help member countries develop their economies. In his role he covers the Arab countries, manages technical cooperation projects, and conducts policy dialogue on local currency and capital markets development. Before joining EBRD, he worked as a research analyst for Thomas Murray, a London based consulting firm specialised in providing information and risk rating of capital market institutions, primarily covering the Middle East and Africa desk and working on product development. Fady holds a bachelor in economics from London School of Economics, and a Master’s degree in investment and finance from University of Exeter.