MAGID MAGID

My work interrogates power, resistance, and belonging, informed by my experiences as a Somali-born refugee living in the UK, an elected politician and a cultural provocateur. Working across performance, sculpture, and socially engaged practices, my art invites audiences to question societal hierarchies and participate in reimagining a more inclusive and just world. My practice combines bold physical gestures with accessible, tangible forms. Materials, locations, and interactions are carefully chosen to ground abstract themes in lived realities, transforming my art into a space for reflection and shared dialogue. My approach prioritises collaboration and inclusivity, creating works that provoke, connect, and inspire.

HOW DOES YOUR SUBMITTED WORK RESPOND TO THE CIRCA 20:25 MANIFESTO?
As a refugee, I know the edges of places shaped by fear and rejection. This work revisits UK sites of last summer’s Islamophobic and racist violence, a mosque, a street, and a hotel housing asylum seekers, transforming them into refugia. Placing a prayer mat where hostility once flared, I perform salah, reclaiming public space as sacred ground. The gestures of prayer become acts of stillness and strength, resisting erasure and shifting narratives from exclusion to belonging. Interwoven video and traces of violence form a counter-narrative, showing how art cultivates communal sanctuary, preserves dignity, and generates possibilities for life amid uncertainty.

IF AWARDED THE £30,000 CIRCA PRIZE, WHAT 10-MINUTE WORK WOULD YOU CREATE – AND HOW WOULD IT EMBODY THE SPIRIT OF REFUGIA?
For the first time since I fled Somalia as a child, I will return, leaving Sheffield in a bright pink bear costume that embodies the exact teddy I carried with me. It was my comfort, my refuge, my witness. Decades later, I will become it, moving urgently through cities, villages and borders as if time has been waiting for this moment. The road will be a blur of strangers, touches, and fleeting moments. And when I finally arrive… who will be there to meet me? This work will carry sanctuary across distance, connecting places, memories, and the people between them.

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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!