EMPIRE LINES

In this special episode, author and contemporary art historian Clare Carolin joins EMPIRE LINES live, to discuss the British government’s deployment of art as an instrument of war in the North of Ireland and the Falklands (Malvinas) in the 20th century, and their research in the archives and collections of the Imperial War Museum (IWM) in London. This episode was recorded live as part of A Convers...

Contemporary artist Suleman Aqeel Khilji recollects the landscapes of Balochistan, a mountainous region spanning present-stay Pakistan and Iran, and the influence of Urdu language and literatures on his painting practice, through Elevation (Chiltan) (2025-2026). Inside the White Cube: Suleman Aqeel Khilji: Transmission is at White Cube Paris until 25 July 2026. Suleman Aqeel Khilji’s painting Unti...

Researcher, artist, and curator Pietro Consolandi traces the ‘wetland turn’ in art, ecology, and environmental justice, via Giovanni Pellegrini’s 2025 documentary film, The Venice Lagoon, a legal person. Nature Speaks: Listening for Rights of Nature in Venice and Europe is at Ocean Space in Venice until 11 October 2026. The Research Unit, curated by Pietro Consolandi and Amalia Rossi, is co-produc...

Festival director Sithara Pathirana considers climate justice and public space in Europe, tracing the rights of the river Danube through Austria, Central, Eastern, and Southeastern Europe, via the Klima Biennale Wien (2026). Klima Biennale Wien 2026: Unspeakable Worlds continues in Vienna until 10 May 2026. Bürgerin Donau, Katja Schechtner, Alex Putzer, Vincent Wagner (2025), curated by Vienna Des...

Journalist, photographer, and filmmaker Ahmad Al-Bazz captures the depopulation and destruction of Palestinian villages and towns, and the continuation of colonial histories into the present, through their photography book, The Erasure of Palestine (2026). The Erasure of Palestine by Ahmad Al-Bazz is published by MuseumsEtc, and available in all good bookshops and online. Thread Memory: Embroidery...

Curator Franz W. Kaiser considers the avant-garde paintings of Karel Appel, in relation to the historic CoBrA Movement and contemporary ecologies, via Human Being and Animals (1949). Karel Appel: Variations on a Theme is at Galerie Max Hetzler in London until 16 April 2026. Karel Appel’s Hip, Hip, Hoorah! (1949) is on view in the collection display In the Studio: The Disappearing Figure: Art after...

In this special episode, artist Sovay Berriman and curator Marie-Anne McQuay join EMPIRE LINES live, to unearth histories of extractivism in Cornwall and Liverpool, and the relations between colonialism, clay, copper, and tin mining, tourism, and cultural identity, through The Thing About Making Rocks (2026). This episode was recorded live as part of the public programme for Flamm 2026 , Cornwall’...

In this episode, conceptual artist Ahmet Öğüt travels by train through Ottoman Turkey, the former Yugoslavia and Western Balkans, to the London Underground, navigating histories and contemporary expressions of solidarity via the 2025 programme, Revolutionary Roads. Destination: Comradeship. Revolutionary Roads. Destination: Comradeship was organised by the Moderna galerija in Ljubljana, the Museum...

In this special episode, glass artist Chris Day and poet and creative producer Gabriella Gay join EMPIRE LINES live, to reflect on the complex histories of the Wedgwood Anti-Slavery Medallion, and the relationships between colonialism, abolitionism, and ceramics in the Midlands, through the collaborative research project, I Am a Man and a Brother (2021-Now). This episode was recorded live at the V...

Wormcasts  is a podcast from Chelsea Physic Garden, created by the Young Producers – a group of 16 – 24 year olds working to engage more young people with the garden.  This series explores the global histories of botanic gardens, deceptive plants, working in the garden, and plants in the context of health and wellbeing.  In this cutting from the episode, Hidden Histories, we explore approaches to...

In this special episode, authors and historians Leslie Primo and Miranda Kaufmann join EMPIRE LINES live, to discuss migration, national identity, and the many heritages of Britain’s best-known artworks, drawing from the collections of the National Gallery and National Portrait Gallery in London. This episode was recorded live at the Supporters’ House Salon at the National Gallery in London in Oct...

Contemporary artist Jumana Emil Abboud respirits water sources from Palestine to Wales, drawing on folklore, oral storytelling, and memories of dispossession and resistance, in her ongoing series of collaborative workshops and performances, The Water Diviners (2020-). Jumana Emil Abboud ’s exhibition is at Mostyn in Llandudno until 22 February 2026. Artes Mundi 11 continues at venues across Wales...

In this special episode, author, curator, and archaeologist Dan Hicks joins EMPIRE LINES live, to trace the origins of contemporary conflicts over art, history, memory, and colonialism, through their book, Every Monument Will Fall (2025). This episode was recorded live at Curio at Common Ground in Oxford in October 2025. Find all the information in the first Instagram post: instagram.com/p/DN0R3hN...

Wormcasts  is a podcast from Chelsea Physic Garden, created by the Young Producers – a group of 16 – 24 year olds working to engage more young people with the garden.  This series explores the global histories of botanic gardens, deceptive plants, working in the garden, and plants in the context of health and wellbeing.  Wormcasts are the microbially rich and fertile clumps of soil that worms leav...

In this special episode, contemporary artists and filmmakers Miloš Trakilović and Jelena Visković join EMPIRE LINES live, exloring narratives of war, displacement, and visual cultures in the collapse of Yugoslavia in the 1990s, through the video essay, Colorless Green Freedoms Sleep Furiously (2023). This episode was recorded live as part of the public programme for soft enclosures , co-curated by...

Composer and artist Raven Chacon amplifies the Catholic Church’s complicity in the suppression of Indigenous people in the Americas, through their composition for organ, Voiceless Mass (2021). Raven Chacon’s Voiceless Mass was performed at St. Giles’ Cathedral in August 2025, as part of Edinburgh Art Festival (EAF) 2025. Deep Time 2025: I See Red , curated by Raven Chacon, is at Fruitmarket in Edi...

In this special episode, filmmaker, cultural theorist, and curator Manthia Diawara joins EMPIRE LINES live, to discuss Édouard Glissant’s relations with natural environmental disasters, connecting the islands of the Caribbean and Scotland, through the exhibition, The Trembling Museum (2023-2024). This episode was recorded live as part of PEACE FREQUENCIES , a 24 hour live radio broadcast to mark I...

Contemporary artist Emilija Škarnulytė snakes from the decaying control rooms of the Ignalina Nuclear Power Plant in Lithuania, to Dungeness on the English Channel, exploring time and geology through the concept of future archaeology, via their film installation, Burial (2022). Folkestone Triennial 2025 continues until 19 October 2025. From Amber to the Stars. Together with M. K. Čiurlionis: Now a...

In this special episode, contemporary artists Hoa Dung Clerget and Duong Thuy Nguyen, and gallerist Sarah Le Quang Sang, join EMPIRE LINES live, exploring the legacies of French and British colonialism in East Asia, fifty years since the end of the Vietnam War, through the series, If They Survive, They are Refugees (2024). Marking 50 years since the end of the Vietnam War, Only Your Name (2025) is...

BUZZWORDS is a new pilot podcast from Open City, produced in collaboration with the arts and culture podcast EMPIRE LINES. The podcast unpacks words and phrases often overused in the fields of art and architecture. Produced by curator, writer, and researcher Jelena Sofronijevic, each episode invites artists, curators, architects, and academics to consider what we really mean when we use terms like...

In this special episode, contemporary artist Elsa James joins EMPIRE LINES live, navigating how the slave ship marks and haunts Black lives in Britain today, in their interdisciplinary exhibition, It Should Not Be Forgotten (2025). *Content Warning* This episode discusses rape and other forms of sexual violence. Seeking to capture ‘the rupture, erasure, fragmentation and interconnectedness of Blac...

Artist Hanna Tuulikki traces the migration route of the Marsh Warbler, a bird that mimics and remixes the songs of European and Afrotropical species it meets, across the English Channel to Kent. Through vocal mimesis, or mimicry, Hanna Tuulikki offers alternative approaches to making kin with more-than-human beings. Developing their performance work with birds and bats in Scotland, recently part o...

In this special episode, filmmaker and contemporary artist Alia Syed joins EMPIRE LINES live, to weave together their works in moving image, photography, and oral history, and reflect on personal experiences of migration in South Asian diasporic communities in 1960s–1970s Glasgow, through their ongoing film series, The Dhaba (2025). Drawing inspiration from the tale of St. Mungo - the patron saint...

Find out more about Leo Robinson’s relations to African and Caribbean cosmologies, and worldbuilding through play, with Stone Portals (Ongoing), now part of ⁠⁠SEEDLINGS: Diasporic Imaginaries⁠⁠, curated by Jelena Sofronijevic with Travelling Gallery in Scotland. The group exhibition, featuring Emii Alrai, Iman Datoo, Radovan Kraguly, Zeljko Kujundzic, Remi Jabłecki, Leo Robinson, and Amba Sayal-Be...

Find out more about Iman Datoo’s installation, Kinnomic Botany (2022), now part of ⁠SEEDLINGS: Diasporic Imaginaries⁠ , curated by Jelena Sofronijevic with Travelling Gallery in Scotland. The group exhibition, featuring Emii Alrai, Iman Datoo, Radovan Kraguly, Zeljko Kujundzic, Remi Jabłecki, Leo Robinson, and Amba Sayal-Bennett, is touring across Scotland, culminating at Edinburgh Art Festival (E...