Out Of The Circle Organization

We are thrilled to welcome this month Farah Salem our new artist in residence. 🤍

Farah is an interdisciplinary artist and somatic art therapist; these two practices exist independently, yet are intertwined as her professional training informs her artistic inquiry of how trauma manifests in the body. Her visual arts practice rooted in photography expands through video, performance and installation finding subtle affinities between geologic time, somatic movement, gendered trauma, and Arabian Peninsula ceremonial healing rituals. Through relational merging and mapping of human and geologic bodies, she envisions their liberation by examining themes of agency, making the invisible visible, and the potential erosion of socio-cultural conditioning.

She holds an MA in Art Therapy and Counseling from School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Farah’s work has been featured at Museum of Contemporary Art (Chicago), Museum of Contemporary Photography (Chicago), Expo Chicago Art Fair, Hyde Park Art Center (Chicago) American University Museum Katzen Art Center (Washington DC), Patel Brown (Toronto), United Photo Industries (New York), Centro Cultural De Santa Cruz (Bolivia), Paris Contemporary Art Fair. Farah is the recipient of the 2024 3Arts Award, and is the 2017 Laureate Winner: International Women Photographers Award.

During her residency, Farah will be deepening her research into healing rituals of the Arabian Peninsula which spread through migration and cross-cultural exchange, centering a relationship with the earth. She will be looking into aspects of healing rituals which rely on objects crafted through local materials and techniques—fiber, clay, pigment, metal, and natural matter—each carrying symbolic and healing resonance. Her aim is to broaden and enrich her current study with new perspectives beyond the Arabian Peninsula. She is particularly interested in how these practices connect land, body, and material, and how they evolve across geographies, migrations, and ecological change.

Welcome, Farah. We can’t wait to see where this research takes you. ✨

Portrait photo credit: Tamara Hijazi

It is a pleasure having Liina Leo with us this month at Out Of The Circle.

Liina Leo is an Estonian multidisciplinary artist whose work explores the transformative power of the unseen. Her practice navigates liminal spaces between life and death, light and darkness, dreams and reality.

She holds a BA in Textile Design from the Estonian Academy of Arts and an MA in Contemporary Photography from Central Saint Martins. Liina approaches image-making as an alchemical process, focusing on its hidden material conditions rather than representation alone. Through site-specific performances, photography, and moving image, she reflects on experiences of alienation — using ritual as a tool for transformation and the search for self-identity.

This month, Liina’s research engages with ancient sites and the rapidly transforming urban landscape of Cairo. Through this encounter with both past and present, she critically explores the symbolic and esoteric dimensions of cultural memory, focusing on storytelling, beliefs, and rituals surrounding the afterlife.

We are so happy to have Fatima Lahham with us at Out of the Circle this month! 🎉

Fatima is a musician and researcher based in South-East London, UK. Her work embraces improvised music on the recorder and with her voice, research using creative and participatory methods, and facilitation work creating spaces for people to make and sound together. Her solo recorder album bulbul on FS Records draws on improvisation and poetry to tell stories about birds, voices, home, and the spaces in between.

Currently a Hallsworth Research Fellow at the University of Manchester, Fatima is working on a project called Carrying Each Others’ Hearts with Our Ears, about music-making practices, community and healing justice. Her first book, Improvising Otherwise, was published in 2025.

✨ About her residency:
Fatima joined us in March 2026 to develop a new project combining sound, visual art, and creative research. She is experimenting with how sound and music can be represented in zines—drawing inspiration from the dafatir (notebooks) tradition used in the works of Dia al-Azzawi and other Iraqi artists, who created folding notebooks that expand and contract, containing words alongside artwork.

During her time in Cairo, Fatima is diving into the local zine scene, creating field recordings across the city, and making recordings of her own improvisations in different spaces. Through collage, sketching, and printing, she is crafting sound(ing) maps that can be read, looked at, and listened to—inviting creative experiences of time, space, and sound.

We can’t wait to see where this exploration takes her! 🗺️🎧

Her arts residency is supported by the University of Manchester.

Open Call: Local Cultural Guide for Out of the Circle 🗺️🎨

We are looking for a passionate Cairo-based guide to become the cultural bridge for our artists! If you live and breathe the history and creative energy of this city, this is for you.

🌟 This is a fantastic opportunity for fresh graduates!

📍 Location: Cairo, Egypt
📅 Position: Part-time Local Guide (up to 3 days a week)
⏳ Application Deadline: December 10th
🗓️ Start Date: Thursday, December 18th

We’re looking for someone who:
✅ Holds a university degree (an Art background is a plus!). Fresh graduates are strongly encouraged to apply.
✅ Has deep knowledge of Egypt’s historical landmarks and cultural scene.
✅ Is advanced in English with excellent communication skills.
✅ Is a quick-thinking people-person, comfortable with diverse cultural backgrounds.
✅ Is physically able to walk long distances and is flexible to work on weekends.
✅ Is enthusiastic about representing Egypt’s richness and supporting artists.

The salary for this position is set at an entry level, making it an ideal opportunity for fresh graduates to gain valuable professional experience in the cultural field.

How to Apply:
Please submit the following to: [email protected]
✉️ Subject of the email: For Local Guide

Required documents:

· A CV with your contact information (email & mobile)
· A short cover letter explaining your interest and relevant experience

Join us in creating an unforgettable cultural experience! We can’t wait to hear from you.

We are thrilled to announce our new Artist in Residence in Nov/Dec 2025

Stephanie O’Connor
Painter and multidisciplinary artist, USA

Stephanie lived for two months in Tetouan, Morocco and in Paros, Greece where she visited the archaeology site of Delos. She is interested in early world history and myth which is reflected in a body of ongoing research and drawings. With her non figurative paintings, she copies textile patterns and transforms them into pieces of custom designed cloth with industrial printing techniques. Her work participated in two runway shows and a third next year for exhibition in Italy.

With the Out of the Circle, Stephanie is glad to learn more about Egyptian Architecture, Ancient Egypt and Egyptian Mythology. This early world history is particularly interesting to her because it provides a source of visuals that she inspires her to create her chthonic paintings. While trying to understand a place from this perspective, she realizes the mythology is connected to the nature and elements of the land. She was recently published in Curatory Magazine Vol.7.