Aliaskar Abarkas is an Iranian artist based in London. Informed by alternative and communal art education, their practice fosters dynamic encounters that move from solitary experience toward collective expression. Working fluidly across compositional, choreographic, and sculptural forms, Abarkas creates spaces for participation, experimentation, and shared learning.

Their projects often begin with a simple gesture — a sound, a score, a shared activity — that invites others to take part. Art-making, for Abarkas, becomes a space of mutual learning, where processes remain open and responsive to those involved. Through this approach, they seek to reimagine the contexts in which their work can evolve and circulate, continuously reshaping the dimensions of ideas and materials.

Abarkas is currently a fellow at Sadler’s Wells / Rose Choreographic School (London, 2024–26). Their work has been supported by institutions including the Barbican Centre, ICA, The Mosaic Rooms, TACO!, Pushkin House, Cubitt (London), CAPC (Bordeaux), and LOCALES (Rome).

During their residency, Aliaskar Abarkas will revisit Vivaldi’s The Contest Between Harmony and Invention—published in Venice in 1725—reimagining it through a contemporary sonic and choreographic lens. In dialogue with the concerto form, the project explores how collective practice can revoice inherited musical structures. Across a series of workshops and rehearsals with invited contributors, Abarkas will develop a new composition that reinterprets The Contest exactly 300 years after its publication. This will form the basis of a sound installation and music album, accompanied by fused glass windows affixed to Scuola Piccola Zattere—functioning as both score and choreography, activated by the play of natural light.