The Season of Burning Things is moving image collaboration between Asmaa Jama and Ghouled Ahmed. Unfolding from the creators’ perspectives in the Somali diaspora, the piece takes the lead from East African mythos and Islamic imagery to explore mythmaking, Blackness; a ‘generation of ghosts’ and the transient spirit.

With a background in poetry, Asmaa’s practice is concerned with how the supernatural, ancient rites and rituals speak to the tensions of our contemporary world. Asmaa Jama’s first film work Before We Disappear (2021), was an interactive moving image piece commissioned by BBC Arts, followed by The Season of Burning Things (2021), in collaboration with Gouled Ahmed, commissioned by the Bristol Old Vic (2021) and Except this time nothing returns from the ashes (2022), their first institutional solo, at Spike Island. Their work has also been presented at the Venice Architecture Biennale in collaboration with the Goethe Institute and Theatre Neumarkt’s 100 Ways to Say We Programme (2021), and was the official selection at Blackstar Film Festival and Aesthetica Film Festival.