TIDES: (Intertidal) – Migration Festival

Community Curators

TIDES is curated by the Community Curators, consisting of Amalia Syeda-Aguirre, Arbër Qerka-Gashi and Ching Wong.

The Community Curators is a collective of creative first and second-generation migrants and refugees. 

They say: “Our curatorial practice seeks to uncover and amplify the lesser-told perspectives, emphasising stories of solidarity and collectivity. We celebrate the experiences, which we are told should bring shame, and strive to showcase the full spectrum of what is possible when we shift; both physically and spiritually.”

Amalia Syeda-Aguirre (b. 1986, London) is a writer, curator and community organiser of Chilean and Bangladeshi heritage. Amalia’s writing focuses on world-building for young children; understanding our collective past and imagining better futures for people and the planet. 

Arbër Qerka-Gashi (b. 1997, London) is a writer, curator, archivist and community organiser of Kosovar heritage. He is the founder of the research platform and publication, Balkanism as well as co-founder of the Balkan London Collective. 

Ching Wong is a London-based curator, writer and programmer. She co-founded Hong Kong Film Festival UK and the transnational cultural collective Archipelago. Her curatorial practice explores how cross-disciplinary artistic experimentation can reshape the ways we gather, (un)learn and imagine.

Background to the event

The event organisers share their aims and ambitions for the event.

Migration stories are too often absent from, or misrepresented within, public narratives. These are shaped by increasingly politicised debates that continue to dehumanise communities that migrate and/or are forcibly displaced. 

In response to this context, this year's Tides: (Intertidal) Migration Festival, produced in collaboration with Royal Museums Greenwich, the Community Curators and the Migration Museum, places the voices and lived experiences of people connected to migration and displacement at the heart of its programme. 

Drawing on the metaphor of the tides, and the waters that have long carried people across borders, continents and generations, the festival explores the ebb and flow of human movement over thousands of years. 

Inspired by the 'Crossings' display at the Queen's House, the event brings together creative responses that foreground lived experience, offering perspectives that have too often been overlooked or underrepresented within institutional spaces.

The name of the event 'Intertidal', refers to a shoreline that is constantly submerged and then exposed. It is dynamic, often hidden and then visible, much like the inner and external multi-layered experience of migration. The marine communities that live in these intertidal areas are hardy, adaptable and experience extreme conditions.