King's College London

From 2 October 2024, London’s Strand Aldwych and spaces across King’s College London will be home to Lost & Found: Stories of sanctuary and belonging, a free public programme of arts and ideas, presented by King’s Culture.

Lost & Found foregrounds stories of sanctuary - exploring themes of refuge, resilience, and the search for safety in a world facing significant social, political, and environmental challenges.

This eclectic programme of art, film, ideas and discussions reflects King’s status as a University of Sanctuary. It has been inspired and informed by King’s life-changing research and co-created with artists and communities from across London and beyond.

The Lost & Found Programme includes:

Belongings
2 October – 8 November

Lost & Found launches on 2 October with Belongings, by renowned artist Susan Aldworth, which will invite visitors to reflect upon how it would feel to leave their home forever and what it means to belong, in the current moment, for people seeking sanctuary in the UK.

Belongings centres an exhibition featuring the imagined content of the suitcase Susan Aldworth's grandmother, Luigia, brought with her when she was migrating from Northern Italy to London in 1924. Thirty-five individual antique clothes, including a nightgown that was in the original suitcase, are hand-embroidered with family photographs, stories and recipes. Suspended in mid-air, they highlight the transitory and emotional nature of an uprooted life.

The exhibition is accompanied by a programme of events, including a screening of Matar and Q&A with director Hassan Akkad.

Belongings will be open in The Arcade, Bush House - Monday – Friday, 10:00 – 18:00 and on Saturday 5 and 12 October to coincide with Congregation and Frieze London.

Entry to the exhibition and all events is free. Registration for events is required.

Congregation
4-9 October

From 4-9 October, the Strand and St Mary le Strand Church will host Congregation, a new large-scale choral installation, created by Es Devlin with UK for UNCHR (The UN Refugee Agency).

Congregation features large scale chalk and charcoal portraits of 50 Londoners who have experienced forced displacement from their homelands, created by Es Devlin over the past 4 months. Each portrait sitter is a co-author of the work and depicted holding a box containing a projected animated sequence which they have envisaged. The co-authors make up a vibrant London congregation whose roots extend across the globe to Syria, Sudan, South Sudan, Ukraine, Afghanistan, Yemen, Iran, Iraq, Libya, Palestine, Pakistan, India, Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Somalia, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Nigeria, Rwanda, Uganda, Somalia, Tanzania, Chile, Venezuela, Albania, Bosnia, Kosovo and Germany.

These 50 portraits will be presented as a monumental projection within the eighteenth-century church of St Mary le Strand and accompanied by choral music performed outside the church at dusk each evening.

Congregation will be free and open to the public daily from 11:00 till 21:00 with public choral performances within the surrounding pedestrianised area of the Strand outside The Courtauld at 19:00 each evening from Friday 4 October until Wednesday 9 October (no choral performance on Monday 7 October), to coincide with Frieze London.

Congregation has been curated by Ekow Eshun and has developed in collaboration with King’s College London in partnership with The Courtauld.

Book your free tickets

More events

Find full details of the Lost & Found programme here

To keep up to date on the latest announcements, sign up to the King’s Culture newsletter