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Artists’ Film International 2025 // Dream States Sin Wai Kin

Southwark Park Galleries is partnering with Forma to present Artists’ Film International 2025 ‘Dream States’ - a programme of artist films from around the globe that dismantle reality and envision alternative futures, running in Lake & Dilston galleries from 19 July - 19 October 2025.

This is a publicly contributed event and not a council event. If you would like, you can submit your own event and have it appear on our website (subject to review).
A close up of the artist artistically painted in blues and reds.
Sin Wai Kin, The Fortress, 2024. Film still. Courtesy and © the artist. Co-commissioned by Lahore Biennale Foundation and Forma. Supported by The British Council and Shane Akeroyd. Selected for AFI’25 by Forma and Southwark Park Galleries, London, UK

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Wednesday - Sunday
Description

Dream States — the 18th edition of Artists’ Film International — explores dreaming as both a transformative state and a radical act, challenging perceptions of reality and opening pathways to alternative futures. Curated by Forma with 16 cultural institutions across four continents, this year’s edition showcases a remarkable cohort of artists, each selected or commissioned by an AFI’25 partner and presented in diverse formats, including exhibitions, festivals, and screenings throughout 2025.  

At the intersection of personal consciousness and external realities, Dream States explores the emancipatory potential of dreams, altered states, and cinematic illusion. The programme foregrounds artists who disrupt linear time, blur fact and fiction, and navigate the boundaries between memory, myth, and fantasy to reimagine the world anew. Using an array of visual strategies, from analogue footage to CGI animation, layered archival materials, special effects and AI-generated imagery, these works harness moving-image to destabilise dominant perspectives. Reflecting upon shared histories, the artists’ eclectic and surreal dreamscapes - utopian and dystopian, intimate and collective - position cinema as the crucible of dream-making and a vehicle for changemaking.

Southwark Park Galleries is partnering with Forma to present the UK premiere of Turner Prize and Jarman Award shortlisted artist Sin Wai Kin’s The Fortress (2024) in Dilston Gallery alongside the full AFI’25 programme in Lake Gallery. The Fortress, co-commissioned by Lahore Biennale Foundation and Forma, examines the fragmented nature of human existence and critiques the notion of our singular, homogenized experience.

Artists' Film international 2025 co-curation and co-presentation partners:
- argos centre for audiovisual arts, Brussels, Belgium
- Center for Contemporary Arts Afghanistan in eXiLe e.V., (CCAA in EXiLe), Frankfurt Germany
- Crawford Art Gallery, Cork, Ireland
- Cultural Centre of Belgrade, Belgrade, Serbia
- Forma, London, UK
- Fundación Proa, Buenos Aires, Argentina
- Galleria d'Arte Moderna e Contemporanea di Bergamo (GAMeC), Bergamo, Italy
- Istanbul Modern, Turkey
- Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions (LACE), Los Angeles, USA
- Museum of Contemporary Art and Design (MCAD) Manila, Philippines
- MMAG Foundation, Amman, Jordan
- Project 88, Mumbai, India
- Sapieha Palace, branch of the Contemporary Art Centre (CAC), Vilnius, Lithuania
- Southwark Park Galleries, London, UK
- Tramway, Glasgow, Scotland
- Tromsø Kunstforening,Tromsø, Norway
- Video-Forum of Neuer Berliner Kunstverein (n.b.k), Berlin, Germany

Featured artists include:
Heesoo Kwon, Mykolas Valantinas, Ahmet Rüstem Ekici and Hakan Sorar, Elinor O’Donovan, Isabelle Nouzha, Anca Benera and Arnold Estefan, Cocoy Lumbao, Anette Gellein, and Babu Eshwar Prasad.


 

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Accessibility

Buildings

  • Lake Galley is fully wheelchair accessible.
  • Dilston Gallery parish room and nave is wheelchair accessible, unfortunately due to the restrictions of  Grade II listed building the altar in the nave of Dilston is not wheelchair accessible and is access via two steps.
  • Accessible, gender neutral toilets are available at both galleries.
  • Baby change facilities are installed in all toilets.
  • Dogs on leads are welcome and water is available for them.

Exhibitions

  1. All exhibitions are free of charge.
  2. Information about current exhibitions and events is available in large print at the gallery desk.
  3. Chairs are available to borrow in the exhibition spaces by asking a member of staff.

If you need assistance with your visit please contact us with your query and we will do everything to make sure you have a positive experience.

Location
Address

1 Park Approach, Southwark Park
London
SE16 2UA
United Kingdom

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