"Balfour Reparations (2025–2045)", by Farah Saleh. © Lucas Chih-Peng Kao
Activity
Thursday, 6 November 2025
Farah Saleh. Balfour Reparations (2025–2045)
Hacer Historia(s) VI
finished
As part of the Project a Black Planet: The Art and Culture of Panafrica exhibition, MACBA is co-organising Balfour Reparations (2025–2045), a piece by Palestinian choreographer Farah Saleh included in Making History(ies) VI, in collaboration with La Poderosa. This performance draws on archives, memories and future imaginaries in order to rethink the British colonial legacy in Palestine, raising questions about reparation, justice and historical responsibility.
The Balfour Reparations (2025–2045) project, is a compelling performance lecture by Palestinian dancer, choreographer and scholar Farah Saleh that invites you to explore and confront the United Kingdom’s colonial legacy in Palestine. Through a blend of history, fiction and fantasy, Saleh examines the role of Arthur James Balfour – former UK Prime Minister, Foreign Secretary and influential academic figure – in shaping policies that denied Palestinian political rights. Using elements of Critical Fabulation and Afrofuturism, this thought-provoking work brings archival materials – videos, photos and documents – into dialogue with imagined futures.
Join us in 2045 as a member of the Reparations Committee as we reflect on a fictive apology letter issued by the UK government in 2025 promising reparations to the Palestinian people. What does accountability look like? What might justice mean?
Step into the future and be part of the conversation.
Creative team:
– Concept and choreography: Farah Saleh
– Film and sound design: Lucas Chih-Peng
– Research: Nicola Perugini
– Dancers: Nadia Khattab, Jamal Bajali
– Rehearsal support: Luke Pell
– Graphic design: Michaela Pointon
– Music: Kim Moore, Wasef Jawhariya
– Creative producer: Helen McIntosh
– Lighting design: Emma Jones
– PR associate: Joy Parkinson
– Production manager: Fi Fraser
Supported by IASH, Culture&, Made in Scotland, Scottish Government
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Farah Saleh Farah Saleh is a Palestinian dancer, choreographer and scholar based in Scotland. She has studied linguistic and cultural mediation in Italy and in parallel continued her studies in contemporary dance. Since 2010 she took part in local and international projects with Sareyyet Ramallah Dance Company (Palestine), the Royal Flemish Theatre and Les Ballets C de la B (Belgium), Mancopy Dance Company (Denmark/Lebanon), Siljehom/Christophersen (Norway) and Candoco Dance Company (UK). Saleh has also been teaching dance, coordinating and curating artistic projects, including the Sareyyet Ramallah Summer Dance School, which she co-founded in 2016. In 2014 she won the third prize of the Young Artist of the Year Award (YAYA) organized by A.M. Qattan Foundation in Palestine for her installation A Fidayee Son in Moscow and in 2016 the dance prize of Palest’In and Out Festival in Paris for the duet La Même. She was an Associate Artist at Dance Base in Edinburgh 2017-2021 and in 2023 she earned her practice-based PhD from Edinburgh College of Art. In 2024, Saleh started a lectureship in Global Majority Performance at Theatre Studies Department at Glasgow University.
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Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Education and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA). Neither the European Union nor EACEA can be held responsible for them.
MACBA Thirty
We celebrate Year Thirty of an infinite MACBA that projects the future as a space for revision and possibility: of taking up what was left unfinished, updating what needs it and projecting anew everything that can still be transformed.
exhibition
Extended until 19 April 2026
Project a Black Planet: The Art and Culture of Panafrica
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