Brent Museum and Archives and Film London are pleased to announce the exhibition of The Park: Dancing on the Ruins of Empire, a new moving image work by Arwa Aburawa and Turab Shah. Marking 100 years since the British Empire Exhibition took place in Wembley Park, the film presents an important new perspective on the legacy of colonialism in one of London’s most diverse boroughs.
Shaped by material from Brent Archives and conversations with residents and archivists, The Park uncovers hidden traces of the Empire Exhibition in the local area. Between 1924-25, the exhibition attracted around 27 million visitors who came to see objects – and even people – from the colonial territories on display. Today, rubble from Wembley Stadium’s twin towers (built for the exhibition) lies beneath the hills of Northala Park in Ealing, a place beloved by the community that is built on this painful past.
Opening Event
Brent Civic Centre, Atrium
6 - 9pm, 10th October 2025
Address: Engineers Way, Wembley Park, Wembley HA9 0FJ
Catering provided with support from Other Cinemas
Arwa Aburawa and Turab Shah, The Park (2025), production still. Courtesy of the artists.
While the British Empire Exhibition has left material relics in the urban landscape – from rubble to road signs – for many local residents it remains buried under the surface, a forgotten history erased from the community’s collective memory. The Park asks not only that we acknowledge the enduring impact of colonialism, but also what it might mean to lift the weight of history, to relieve a burden that has been unduly borne by people of colour.
Produced in the centenary year of the British Empire Exhibition, The Park represents a significant intervention in debates around decolonial thought, archival work and community-oriented art practice. Developed in part as a response to Brent Museum and Archive’s decolonisation audit, the film considers how working with racist material in museum collections impacts the labour of archival research and exhibition-making.
Combining digital video, 16mm film, archival footage and direct animation, Arwa Aburawa and Turab Shah’s work captures the strength of belonging in London’s diaspora communities, to consider how we can move through the past and the challenges of the present towards a more just future.
Arwa Aburawa and Turab Shah, The Park (2025), production still. Courtesy of the artists.
Exhibition Programme
Brent Civic Centre, Atrium
Exhibition | 11th – 12th & 17th – 21st October 2025
Address: Engineers Way, Wembley Park, Wembley HA9 0FJ
Opening Hours:
Mon - Fri: 10:30am-8pm
Saturday: 10:30am to 5pm
Sunday: 12pm to 5pm
Brent Museum and Archives
Exhibition | 11th October 2025 – 18th January 2026
Address: The Exhibition Space, Second Floor, Library at Willesden Green, 95 High Road, Willesden, London, NW10 2SF
Opening Hours:
Mon - Fri: 10:30am-8pm
Saturday: 10:30am to 5pm
Sunday: 12pm to 5pm
Wembley Library
Exhibition | 11th October 2025 – 18th January 2026
Address: Engineers Way, Wembley Park, Wembley HA9 0FJ
Opening Hours:
Mon - Fri: 10:30am-8pm
Saturday: 10:30am to 5pm
Sunday: 12pm to 5pm
Metroland Studios
Exhibition | 20th November – 3rd December 2025
Address: Metroland Cultures
91 Kilburn Square, Kilburn, NW6 6PS
Opening Hours TBC
Arwa Aburawa and Turab Shah are an artist duo based in London. Their work is focused on gathering people together to talk, to learn and to create films. This gathering is facilitated through a project they established in 2019 called ‘Other Cinemas’ which regularly hosts community screening and discussions in Brent, which centre Black and non-white communities and help build solidarities by connecting struggles. They also run a year-long film school for a small group of Black and non-white artists which encourages them to learn, collaborate, create and build communities outside of institutional structures. This school is now in its fourth iteration.
The films Aburawa and Shah create reflect on the forces which shape the communities they belong to, such as displacement, race, environmental harm and other legacies of colonialism. Their films are also guided by questions of justice and how those in the margins create vital spaces for resistance, knowledge production, and alternative ways of being.
Their work has been exhibited at LUX, Humber Street Gallery and as part of the Brent Biennial ‘22. Festival screenings have included CPH:DOX, Dokufest, London Short Film Festival (awarded Best Short Documentary ’25) and BlackStar Film Festival (Best Short Documentary 2024). Screenings of their work have taken place at Camden Arts Centre, Mosaic Rooms, Nottingham Contemporary and Framer Framed. In 2025, they were shortlisted for the Film London Jarman Award and selected as Flaherty Fellows.
Portrait of Arwa Aburawa and Turab Shah. Photo by Melissa Arras.
This exhibition is presented as part of Becoming Brent, a cultural programme organised for the borough to pause, reflect and redress the legacy of the British Empire through a series of newly commissioned artworks and community events.
Co-commissioned by Brent Museum & Archives and Film London through Film London Artists’ Moving Image Network (FLAMIN), London’s Screen Archives (LSA) and Film Hub London, part of the BFI Film Audience Network. Supported by Arts Council England, The National Lottery, The National Lottery Heritage Fund and BFI National Archive
