ORLANDO: BORN IN FLAMES
UK, 2025
An annual one night only art event organized by Zoe Marden in east london. This exhibition occurred right after Tahini got free from the conscription process. The process was so violating and spoke to the urgency of talking about states and their deployment of agency on humans. So Tahini made a performance art piece with another artist filmmaker, El Jaunts. The piece was called “you dont own me”.
QUEERWAVE FESTIVAL
Cyprus, 2024
Tahini was very involved in the festival as their single was used as the theme track of that year and also did the opening ceremony of the 2024 edition of the Queer Wave Festival—the 5th Cyprus LGBTQIA+ Film Festival—was built around the idea of queer memory and cinema as a way to capture personal experiences and document the collective histories of LGBTQIA+ communities. The piece was about the concept of ‘Evil Eye’ and Nazar. The evil eye is a widespread belief found in many cultures that a person can cause harm, misfortune, or bad luck to someone else simply by looking at them with envy, jealousy, or ill intent.
RICHARD SAULTON GALLERY: POETRY NIGHT
UK, 2024
Initiated in 2023 by Matilde Cerruti Quara, supported by Arts Council England, POETRY NIGHT is an ongoing series of multilingual, multimedia public jam sessions of words & moving energies exploring the possibilities of contemporary poetry.
TALKING TEXTURES @ UGLY DUCK
UK, 2024
The show was curated by hairdresser and artist Yasemin Hassan and photographed by Yeliz Zaifoglu. Curating a set for a hair exhibition that is highlighting the different textures of the SWANA hair. It featured an analogue photography series focused on the diversity of textured hair and its meaning within South West Asian and North African (SWANA) communities. The project aimed to challenge Eurocentric beauty standards and decolonise perceptions of hair, celebrating the beauty of natural texture as part of personal and cultural identity.
Tahini’s involvement was to model for the exhibition and curated a performance set that bonded their personal struggle as a hairy trans+ gender non conforming person and blending the traditional symbolisms and songs within their queer narrative. The work was autobiographical and spoke about how society’s perception of body and facial hair is deemed masculine, unhygienic and undesirable.
XARKIS FESTIVAL: UNEARTHING CARE
Cyprus, 2024
The 2024 Xarkis Festival centred on the theme “Unearthing Care: Ecologies of Collaboration,” examining how care, cooperation, and shared knowledge are embedded in everyday community life. Through participatory artworks, workshops, and collective activities, the festival highlighted collaborative practices, local traditions, and social connections, inviting reflection on care as a cultural and creative force rooted in community and place.
Tahini’s work was an hour long set blending a conversation they had with artist-researcher Florenza Deniz Incirli and traditional songs that people loved in Cyprus. The conversation kept flowing in and out of songs making the experience of sound and music and theory of care in harmony. Pointing out the importance of nostalgia and intergenerational care that was important for Tahini’s upbringing.
LARNACA BIENNALE: WEAVING UNITY
Cyprus, 2025
At the Larnaca Biennale last year, Qurious Events presented “Weaving Unity,” a parallel, intercommunal art event that brought together Cypriot participants to promote connection, dialogue, and unity. Tahini curated a set that started with cleansing the space with the help of Tugay Adem Kader through burning olive leaves, a ritual that is commonly done to ward off bad energies in Cyprus. Followed by a set of traditional songs that bridged the past to present.
