The Refuge Exhibition Launch

Join us for the launch of The Refuge photography exhibition in collaboration with the Exhibition Research Lab Gallery at LJMU
About this Event

Through the eclectic perspectives of contemporary photography artists, the group exhibition The Refuge reflects on the notion of ‘home’ in the context of today’s Arabness. Each work explores nuanced stories of displacement and longing, while revealing home as a paradox in transition - whether rooted in place and territory, carried through family and sociocultural heritage, or shaped by memory, movement, and lived geographies. Featuring Farah Maktari, Lydia Saidi, Shareef Sarhan, Abdulrahman Hassona, Houari Bouchenak, and Maya-Ines Touam.

About the exhibition partner:

Exhibition Research Lab (ERL) is proud to host Liverpool Arab Arts Festival’s exhibition ‘The Refuge’ in July 2026. Based at Liverpool John Moores University, ERL is a research-led gallery and curatorial platform that brings together academic inquiry, experimental exhibition-making and public engagement.

“We supports LAAF’s visual arts programme because it creates vital space for artists whose work opens up urgent conversations about culture, memory, migration, identity and belonging.”

The Refuge explores the idea of home through the perspectives of contemporary artists working across photography and moving image, reflecting the diverse ways home may be rooted in place, carried through heritage, or shaped by memory and movement. ERL is committed to supporting ambitious, critically-engaged projects that connect artistic practice with wider social and cultural questions, and we are delighted to partner with LAAF in presenting work that speaks so powerfully to Liverpool’s communities and to contemporary global experience.