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​​Image: Balfour Reparations © Brian Hartley

 

Join us for Balfour Reparations (2026–2046): a performance lecture on the UK’s colonial legacy in Palestine.
 

Farah Saleh in collaboration with Race, Rights & Sovereignty x GSA Palestine Solidarity Society and Tramway Beyond Walls, presents Balfour Reparations (2026-2046) at Glasgow School of Art on Friday 12 June.

Evening Running Time:
 

• 18:00-19:00 performance (with optional audience participation)

• 19:00-19:15 break

• 19:15-20:00 panel discussion
   

Balfour Reparations (2026-2046) 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.

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Join us in 2046, as a member of the Reparations Committee, reflecting on a fictive apology letter issued by the UK government in 2026, 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.

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The performance will be followed by a panel discussion hosted by nxa parinussa.

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​​​​​​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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Supported by IASH, Culture&, Made in Scotland, Scottish Government, Creative Scotland.

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​​​​​​​​​​​This event is part of the Race, Rights & Sovereignty ‘States of Matter’ strand. ‘States of Matter’ is a programme strand which considers interactions between art and statehood, asking how practitioners shift our present states of living. 

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Race, Rights and Sovereignty is now in its sixth year. It was established as a partnership between The Art School: GSA's Students' Association (GSASA) and GSA Exhibitions. The programme has been developed in order to create opportunities, and forums, to engage with and unpack ideas and issues related to race, rights & sovereignty; particularly in the contexts of creative practice. The series aims to celebrate, challenge, inform and inspire the next generation of artists, designers and architects, empowering them to have a creative voice. ​

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