Farah Al-Qasimi

Throughout my work, I try to understand the gulf between a land’s offerings and the economic demands placed upon it, a reality that often requires the denial and forced override of local ecosystems. I make photographs and short films, and I make multi-layered spatial installations that use fiction or amplification as tools to engage with reality. Many bodies of work have begun from a single observation, or an impulse to return to a place again and again to unfold its various complexities.

HOW DOES YOUR SUBMITTED WORK RESPOND TO THE CIRCA 20:25 MANIFESTO?
My submission, Birds, is the initial sketch of a film I would like to make. The film follows a community of youths who are afflicted with a “disappearing disease” and grappling with questions of belonging and rebirth. In this montage, a primary character narrates the loss of his best friend while reminiscing about the parts of the city that felt like places of refuge: a jetty where fishermen fish, a nightclub designed to look like Ancient Rome, and countless parking lots and living rooms. The film also cuts between footage of free birds flying throughout the city and captive birds held inhumanely in overcrowded cages at bird markets.

IF AWARDED THE £30,000 CIRCA PRIZE, WHAT 10-MINUTE WORK WOULD YOU CREATE – AND HOW WOULD IT EMBODY THE SPIRIT OF REFUGIA?
If awarded the prize, I would like to expand this sketch into a ten-minute work that combines traditional footage with text conversations between the group of disappearing friends. I’d like to film with professional birdwatchers and local club-goers to make something that highlights joy in the face of surveillance and subjugation. I compose all of the music for my films but I have never had the budget to work with a music producer, and I imagine that this film is something that could be both visually and sonically rich, and layered in a way that can hold the attention of an audience already enamoured with life on screens.

FOLLOW FARAH AL-QASIMI ON INSTAGRAM

Funding for the CIRCA PRIZE is generated entirely by the #CIRCAECONOMY, a circular model that reinvests proceeds from affordable art sold on CIRCA.ART into new public art commissions, charitable causes, art education and prizes. Since launching in 2020, the initiative has raised over £1 Million, placing artists and communities at the centre of an economy that continually reinvests in the future of art and culture.

The CIRCA PRIZE 2025 winners will be revealed LIVE in Piccadilly Circus on Monday 13 October, with a special 30-minute award ceremony starting at 20:00 BST. Don’t miss it!