The Fortress
The Fortress was co-commissioned by Forma and Lahore Biennale Foundation in 2024, and supported by The British Council and Shane Akeroyd.
Details
Artist: Sin Wai Kin
Title: The Fortress
Year: 2024
Duration: 22 minutes
Medium: Single-channel video, sound
Credit: Sin Wai Kin, The Fortress, 2024. Single-channel video, sound, 22 mintues. Courtesy 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.
Programming
Forma is partnering with Southwark Park Galleries to present the UK premiere of Sin Wai Kin's The Fortress at Southwark Park Galleries' Dilston Gallery alongside the full AFI’25 programme in their Lake Gallery.
18 July - 21 September 2025
Southwark Park Galleries
1 Park Approach, Southwark Park
London, SE16 2UA
The exhibition at Southwark Park Galleries is generously supported by Arts Council England, The Beaverbrook Canadian Foundation and the High Commission of Canada in the United Kingdom. With thanks to Gathering, Mountview, and Old Diorama Arts Centre, all London.
The Fortress (2024)
Sin Wai Kin
Selected for AFI'25 by Forma and Southwark Park Galleries
Commissioned by Forma and Lahore Biennale Foundation, Sin Wai Kin’s The Fortress deconstructs the archetype of “Man,” the so-called rational subject of Western Enlightenment, whose self-appointed authority has shaped canons of knowledge and justified imperialism. Through a dreamlike narrative, Sin dismantles the illusion of his inherent and singular supremacy, exposing the unstable foundations on which his dominance rests and the catastrophic consequences of this constructed paradigm.
Set across two historically significant sites in Lahore, The Fortress follows Wai King, embodied by Sin Wai Kin, as he rehearses for the role of Man at Alfalah Theatre. His performance falters and he begins to fall apart, forcing a reckoning with the fallacy of his universality. At Lahore Fort, he confronts his ghostly double - an echo of past selves and fractured histories. Between these spaces, the boundaries between self and world dissolve, exposing the fragility of his constructed paradigm.
The Fortress takes its title from thirteenth century Sufi poet Rūmī’s Mathnawī, which calls for the walls of a fortress to be demolished to dispel a sense of othering. Exposing existence as fragmented and plural, the film unravels identity and power, critiquing Western-centric knowledge systems and challenging the notion of a fixed reality. In doing so, The Fortress rejects the hegemonic narratives of human experience, revealing its inherent inequities and multiplicities. If reality is constructed, it is also open to dismantling, reimagining, and remaking.
The Fortress will premier in the UK at Southwark Park Galleries on the occasion of Artists' Film International 2025: Dream States, in July 2025.
Sin Wai Kin, The Fortress, 2024. Film still. Co-commissioned by Lahore Biennale Foundation and Forma. Supported by The British Council and Shane Akeroyd. Courtesy and © the artist. Selected for AFI’25 by Forma and Southwark Park Galleries, London, UK.
Sin Wai Kin, The Fortress, 2024. Film still. Co-commissioned by Lahore Biennale Foundation and Forma. Supported by The British Council and Shane Akeroyd. Courtesy and © the artist. Selected for AFI’25 by Forma and Southwark Park Galleries, London, UK.
Sin Wai Kin, The Fortress, 2024. Film still. Co-commissioned by Lahore Biennale Foundation and Forma. Supported by The British Council and Shane Akeroyd. Courtesy and © the artist. Selected for AFI’25 by Forma and Southwark Park Galleries, London, UK.
Sin Wai Kin, The Fortress, 2024. Film still. Co-commissioned by Lahore Biennale Foundation and Forma. Supported by The British Council and Shane Akeroyd. Courtesy and © the artist. Selected for AFI’25 by Forma, London, UK.
Sin Wai Kin, The Fortress, 2024. Film still. Co-commissioned by Lahore Biennale Foundation and Forma. Supported by The British Council and Shane Akeroyd. Courtesy and © the artist. Selected for AFI’25 by Forma and Southwark Park Galleries, London, UK.
Sin Wai Kin, The Fortress, 2024. Film still. Co-commissioned by Lahore Biennale Foundation and Forma. Supported by The British Council and Shane Akeroyd. Courtesy and © the artist. Selected for AFI’25 by Forma and Southwark Park Galleries, London, UK.
Sin Wai Kin, The Fortress, 2024. Film still. Co-commissioned by Lahore Biennale Foundation and Forma. Supported by The British Council and Shane Akeroyd. Courtesy and © the artist. Selected for AFI’25 by Forma and Southwark Park Galleries, London, UK.
Sin Wai Kin, The Fortress, 2024. Film still. Co-commissioned by Lahore Biennale Foundation and Forma. Supported by The British Council and Shane Akeroyd. Courtesy and © the artist. Selected for AFI’25 by Forma and Southwark Park Galleries, London, UK.
Antonia Shaw, Head of Programmes, Forma, says:
Forma is immensely proud to present our new co-commissioned work, The Fortress by Sin Wai Kin, as part of Artists’ Film International: Dream States. The Fortress presents a vision of plurality, shedding light on the fragmented and diverse nature of existence. Wai Kin invites us to consider that if we reside in an illusory dream-like, constructed world, we hold the power to dismantle, reimagine, and reshape it.
Sin’s visionary practice, recognised through both Turner Prize and Jarman Award nominations, enriches the diverse contributions of AFI, contextualising this significant moving image work among other exceptional artists from across the globe. In the The Fortress Sin calls for a multiplicity of voices and experiences, and a breaking of homogenous experiences - making Artists’ Film International the ideal context in which to encounter the work.
Sin Wai Kin, The Fortress, 2024, installation view: Southwark Park Galleries, London, as part of Artists’ Film International: Dream States. Co-commissioned by Lahore Biennale Foundation and Forma. Supported by The British Council and Shane Akeroyd. Selected for AFI’25 by Southwark Park Galleries and Forma. Image courtesy the artist and Southwark Park Galleries. Photo: Mischa Haller.
Sin Wai Kin, The Fortress, 2024, installation view: Southwark Park Galleries, London, as part of Artists’ Film International: Dream States. Co-commissioned by Lahore Biennale Foundation and Forma. Supported by The British Council and Shane Akeroyd. Selected for AFI’25 by Southwark Park Galleries and Forma. Image courtesy the artist and Southwark Park Galleries. Photo: Mischa Haller.
Sin Wai Kin, The Fortress, 2024, installation view: Southwark Park Galleries, London, as part of Artists’ Film International: Dream States. Co-commissioned by Lahore Biennale Foundation and Forma. Supported by The British Council and Shane Akeroyd. Selected for AFI’25 by Southwark Park Galleries and Forma. Image courtesy the artist and Southwark Park Galleries. Photo: Mischa Haller.
Sin Wai Kin, The Fortress, 2024, installation view: Southwark Park Galleries, London, as part of Artists’ Film International: Dream States. Co-commissioned by Lahore Biennale Foundation and Forma. Supported by The British Council and Shane Akeroyd. Selected for AFI’25 by Southwark Park Galleries and Forma. Image courtesy the artist and Southwark Park Galleries. Photo: Mischa Haller.
Sin Wai Kin, The Fortress, 2024, installation view: Southwark Park Galleries, London, as part of Artists’ Film International: Dream States. Co-commissioned by Lahore Biennale Foundation and Forma. Supported by The British Council and Shane Akeroyd. Selected for AFI’25 by Southwark Park Galleries and Forma. Image courtesy the artist and Southwark Park Galleries. Photo: Mischa Haller.
Sin Wai Kin, The Fortress, 2024, installation view: Southwark Park Galleries, London, as part of Artists’ Film International: Dream States. Co-commissioned by Lahore Biennale Foundation and Forma. Supported by The British Council and Shane Akeroyd. Selected for AFI’25 by Southwark Park Galleries and Forma. Image courtesy the artist and Southwark Park Galleries. Photo: Mischa Haller.
Sin Wai Kin, The Fortress, 2024, installation view: Southwark Park Galleries, London, as part of Artists’ Film International: Dream States. Co-commissioned by Lahore Biennale Foundation and Forma. Supported by The British Council and Shane Akeroyd. Selected for AFI’25 by Southwark Park Galleries and Forma. Image courtesy the artist and Southwark Park Galleries. Photo: Mischa Haller.
Sin Wai Kin, The Fortress, 2024, installation view at Lahore Biennale 2024. The Fortress was co-commissioned by Lahore Biennale Foundation and Forma. Supported by The British Council and Shane Akeroyd. Image courtesy the artist and Lahore Biennale Foundation. Photography by Usman Saqib Zuberi.
Sin Wai Kin, The Fortress, 2024, installation view at Lahore Biennale 2024. The Fortress was co-commissioned by Lahore Biennale Foundation and Forma. Supported by The British Council and Shane Akeroyd. Image courtesy the artist and Lahore Biennale Foundation. Photography by Usman Saqib Zuberi.
Sin Wai Kin, The Fortress, 2024, installation view at Lahore Biennale 2024. The Fortress was co-commissioned by Lahore Biennale Foundation and Forma. Supported by The British Council and Shane Akeroyd. Image courtesy the artist and Lahore Biennale Foundation. Photography by Usman Saqib Zuberi.
Sin Wai Kin, The Fortress, 2024, installation view at Lahore Biennale 2024. The Fortress was co-commissioned by Lahore Biennale Foundation and Forma. Supported by The British Council and Shane Akeroyd. Image courtesy the artist and Lahore Biennale Foundation. Photography by Usman Saqib Zuberi.
Sin Wai Kin, The Fortress, 2024, installation view at Lahore Biennale 2024. The Fortress was co-commissioned by Lahore Biennale Foundation and Forma. Supported by The British Council and Shane Akeroyd. Image courtesy the artist and Lahore Biennale Foundation. Photography by Usman Saqib Zuberi.
Artist Q&A
What compels you to work with moving image, and when did you first become interested in the medium?
I am interested in moving image because it is one of the most common sites of storytelling in culture. It is all around us in advertising, social media, film and tv. In order to interrupt these narratives and speak to that history of knowledge production I like to occupy those same mediums to perform and then complicate the relationships within them.
Can you speak about the potential that dreaming and altered states of reality offer individuals and societies? How do you feel this is reflected in filmmaking and in your artwork specifically?
Fantasy is not just escapism, it can also be a view from elsewhere to reflect on our everyday context and embodiment. You can’t see the whole of something until you are outside of it.
Please share a list of books, music, films, artworks, thinkers, spaces and places that inspire your practice, and in particular have fed into your thinking around this film.
Rumi - Masnavi
Chuang Tzu - Inner Chapters
Kathryn Yusoff - A Billion Black Anthropocenes or none
Donna Haraway - Staying with the Trouble: Making Kin in the Chthulucene
Stephen Hawking - A Brief History of Time
Tarsem Singh - The Cell, The Fall (films)
The Fortress was co-commissioned by Forma and Lahore Biennale Foundation in 2024, and supported by The British Council and Shane Akeroyd.
Details
Artist: Sin Wai Kin
Title: The Fortress
Year: 2024
Duration: 22 minutes
Medium: Single-channel video, sound
Credit: Sin Wai Kin, The Fortress, 2024. Single-channel video, sound, 22 mintues. Courtesy 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.
Programming
Forma is partnering with Southwark Park Galleries to present the UK premiere of Sin Wai Kin's The Fortress at Southwark Park Galleries' Dilston Gallery alongside the full AFI’25 programme in their Lake Gallery.
18 July - 21 September 2025
Southwark Park Galleries
1 Park Approach, Southwark Park
London, SE16 2UA
The exhibition at Southwark Park Galleries is generously supported by Arts Council England, The Beaverbrook Canadian Foundation and the High Commission of Canada in the United Kingdom. With thanks to Gathering, Mountview, and Old Diorama Arts Centre, all London.