Receiving its UK premiere at John Hansard Gallery, The Song draws on Abidi’s interest in sound and migration and what it means to be displaced.

The film follows the fictional story of an elderly man who has recently arrived in a new and unfamiliar European city. He confronts the isolation of his new apartment by creating his own soundscapes to recreate what is familiar and reassuring.

The Song poignantly highlights the realities of homesickness, yearning and loss. In so doing, Abidi enables a complex spell of identity to emerge, where we glimpse an intimate portrait that moves between sanity and madness, tragedy and comedy, rootedness and rootlessness.

The Song is on show at John Hansard Gallery from 11 February to 6 May 2023, commissioned by Film and Video Umbrella, Contemporary Art Society, John Hansard Gallery and Salzburger Kunstverein.