It marks the first public UK solo exhibition by Bouchra Khalili.
A new exhibition titled Circles and Storytellers by artist and educator Bouchra Khalili has opened at Mosaic Rooms in Southwest London. Running until 14 June 2026 and open from Wednesday to Saturday, 11am to 6pm, and on Sundays, 12pm to 5pm, it marks Khalili’s first public UK solo exhibition.
Centred on the question of ‘How do we turn a theatre stage into a space for new civic imaginations?’, the Circles and Storytellers exhibition displays the interconnected works The Circle Project (2023) and The Public Storyteller (2024), signifying the end of Khalili’s decade-long exploration of the unseen history of the Mouvement des Travailleurs Arabes (MTA) and its theatre groups, Al Assifa and Al Halaka.
Active between 1973 and 1977, these groups of undocumented Maghrebi workers utilised theatre as a method for social justice, artistic expression, and a safe space for community. The works are centred on the overlooked candidacy of Djelalli Kamal, an MTA member and Al Assifa performer who ran in the 1974 French presidential election, known as ‘the candidate of those who cannot vote’.
The formations of Al Assifa and Al Halaka, translated as ‘the circle’ and ‘the assembly’ in Arabic, inform both the works and their display, showing Khalili’s storytelling skills, intergenerational memory, and visions of belonging.
Bouchra Khalili is a French-Moroccan artist, born in 1975 in Casablanca and now based in Vienna. She graduated in Film & Media Studies at Sorbonne Nouvelle and Visual Arts at the École Nationale d’Arts de Paris-Cergy. Her work spans film, video, installation, photography, printmaking, publishing and textiles - delving into imperialism and colonialism through the lens of migration and solidarity.
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