FACT Liverpool is hosting a day of Earth events with artists from Africa and the UK

The event has been created by North West-based A.MAL Projects, which explores ecology, migration and globalization through art and research.

A day of multi-cultural workshops, performances and talks digging into the subject of Earth and what it means to us all is coming to FACT Liverpool.

Using the theme of ARD – an Arabic word which means earth, ground, soil and territory – artists from Morocco, Egypt and the UK will be leading a programme designed to get people thinking and talking more about big issues which affect everyone.

There’ll be discussions, talks, a Q&A and a live audio-visual performance – plus audiences will have the chance to get directly involved.

Heidi Elkholy, who has been working with A.MAL Projects, says it’s about opening up debate and seeing things from a different perspective.

“It’s centred around things that really matter at the moment, so ecology, migration, climate and what’s sustainable,” she explains. “It focuses on ARD, the ground, and what lies beneath us. It’s quite abstract so it could be how the ground feeds us because we grow our food from it, we walk on the ground, we rest on it, we build our homes on it, but also what are we doing to it? 

“The aim is to challenge perceptions and generate conversations by not only engaging people in what the artists are talking about but by encouraging them to apply it in their own lives and views.”

A.MAL Projects has long-standing connections with Liverpool’s Arab cultural community and has worked with the Arab Arts Festival, which celebrated its 25 anniversary this year.

As a multi-cultural city, Heidi says they’re hoping this event – on Friday September 8 – will be well-received in the same way the festival is.

“I think there’s an interest and openness in Liverpool around learning about other cultures,” she adds.

One of the ways audiences can get involved is during the first event of the day, a discussion created by Cairo-based publisher Nour Elsafoury, entitled The Beehive: Collective Thinking About Art.

People going along are asked to bring what they feel represents their relationship with the ground – it could be shoes, plants, books by a favourite author on the subject or something written by themselves.

“It’s really an invitation for people to collaborate and that’s always good because in art there can be a lot of elitism and this attitude of ‘if you don’t get it then you’re dumb’ which is what turns people off,” says Heidi. 

“Some of the issues being talked about during the day might seem quite inaccessible at first, but actually they’re discussed in a really interesting and relatable way.

“You go in thinking one thing and go away, after discussing so many things and learning about other people’s experiences, thinking differently and then bringing that to your own life.”

For details of the full programme and the artists taking part at FACT Liverpool click here.