Motiroti was a

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

-based organisation which used the arts to achieve intercultural innovation. Since the mid-1990s the company made internationally acclaimed and award-winning art that transformed relationships between people, communities and spaces. motiroti worked at the forefront of ever-changing global social realities, challenging and teasing perceptions of artists, institutions and audiences alike. Working with a range of collaborators within visual and live art, new technology and socially engaged practice, motiroti made public art with the public itself being central to the making and shaping of the work, using emerging social technologies to incorporate multiple perspectives within artworks. The company fostered the development of a lifelong learning culture, with learning and art production part of the same process, and offered potent opportunities to inspire and develop a dynamic exchange between artists and communities.

History

Motiroti means 'fat bread' in Urdu, and the company took its name from one of its earliest projects, ''Moti Roti Puttli Chunni'' - a playful examination of gender stereotypes, presented as live Bollywood musical theatre in east London. Co-founded by artists Ali Zaidi and Keith Khan, motiroti was officially registered as a charity in 1996, although the pair had worked together since the late 1980s. Khan left the company in 2004 to become CEO of the Rich Mix Cultural Foundation. Ali Zaidi continued as the sole Artistic Director until 2012, when he left to establish his own freelance practice under the name o
Ali Zaidi Arts
motiroti was thereafter led by Executive Director Tim Jones, who joined the company in 2010, and following its closure operates as an independent consultant and workshop designer, advising on the development of enterprise opportunities and digital capacity in the culture sector. Details of motiroti projects, from the early 1990s onwards, can be viewed onlin
here
A catalogued archive of its work from the late 1980s up to 2005 is owned by Future Histories, the UK's first dedicated repository for African, Asian and Caribbean performing arts, and its contents can be viewe
here
motiroti presented works in many countries, at venues such as

Arnolfini Gallery Arnolfini is an international arts centre and gallery in Bristol, England. It has a programme of contemporary art exhibitions, artist's performance, music and dance events, poetry and book readings, talks, lectures and cinema. There is also a ...

, Bristol;

Barbican Centre The Barbican Centre is a performing arts centre in the Barbican Estate of the City of London and the largest of its kind in Europe. The centre hosts classical and contemporary music concerts, theatre performances, film screenings and art exhi ...

, London; Bonn Biennale;

Brooklyn Academy of Music The Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM) is a performing arts venue in Brooklyn, New York City, known as a center for progressive and avant-garde performance. It presented its first performance in 1861 and began operations in its present location in ...

;

Edinburgh Festival __NOTOC__ This is a list of arts and cultural festivals regularly taking place in Edinburgh, Scotland. The city has become known for its festivals since the establishment in 1947 of the Edinburgh International Festival and the Edinburgh Fe ...

; Festival Iberoamericano de Teatro de Bogota;

Greenwich Theatre Greenwich Theatre is a local theatre located in Croom's Hill close to the centre of Greenwich in south-east London. Theatre first came to Greenwich at the beginning of the 19th century during the famous Eastertide Greenwich Fair at which the Ric ...

; Harbour Front Centre, Toronto; Houston International Festival;

Institute of Contemporary Arts The Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA) is an artistic and cultural centre on The Mall in London, just off Trafalgar Square. Located within Nash House, part of Carlton House Terrace, near the Duke of York Steps and Admiralty Arch, the ICA c ...

, London;

Ikon Gallery The Ikon Gallery () is an English gallery of contemporary art, located in Brindleyplace, Birmingham. It is housed in the Grade II listed, neo-gothic former Oozells Street Board School, designed by John Henry Chamberlain in 1877. Ikon was set u ...

, Birmingham; It's Queer Up North, Manchester; Kannonhallen, Denmark; Krannert Center, Illinois; La Ferme du Buisson, France; Leeds Mela; London International Festival of Theatre; Lille 3000;

Melbourne Festival Melbourne International Arts Festival, formerly Spoleto Festival Melbourne – Festival of the Three Worlds, then Melbourne International Festival of the Arts, becoming commonly known as Melbourne Festival, was a major international arts festi ...

;

Midlands Arts Centre MAC (stylized as mac) (formerly Midlands Arts Centre) is a non-profit arts centre situated in Cannon Hill Park, Edgbaston, Birmingham, England. It was established in 1962 and is registered as an educational charity which hosts art exhibitions ...

;

Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago The Museum of Contemporary Art (MCA) Chicago is a contemporary art museum near Water Tower Place in downtown Chicago in Cook County, Illinois, United States. The museum, which was established in 1967, is one of the world's largest contemporar ...

;

Museum of London The Museum of London is a museum in London, covering the history of the UK's capital city from prehistoric to modern times. It was formed in 1976 by amalgamating collections previously held by the City Corporation at the Guildhall, London, Gui ...

;

National College of Arts The National College of Arts (colloquially known as NCA) is a public university located in Lahore, Punjab, Pakistan. Overview National College of Arts - A Federal Chartered Institute is the oldest art school in Pakistan and the second oldest i ...

Lahore Lahore ( ; pnb, ; ur, ) is the second most populous city in Pakistan after Karachi and 26th most populous city in the world, with a population of over 13 million. It is the capital of the province of Punjab where it is the largest city. ...

; National Gallery, Cape Town; National Theatre, Islamabad;

Natural History Museum A natural history museum or museum of natural history is a scientific institution with natural history collections that include current and historical records of animals, plants, fungi, ecosystems, geology, paleontology, climatology, and more. ...

, London; New Art Gallery, Walsall; New Haven Festival of Arts and Ideas; Notting Hill Carnival;

Oval House Theatre Ovalhouse, formerly called Oval House Theatre, was an Off-West End theatre in the London Borough of Lambeth, located at 52–54 Kennington Oval, London, SE11 5SW. It closed in 2020, and moved to Brixton, becoming the Brixton House theatre (located ...

, London; Queen Elizabeth Hall, London; REDCAT, Los Angeles; Romaeuropa Festival, Italy;

Royal Albert Hall The Royal Albert Hall is a concert hall on the northern edge of South Kensington, London. One of the UK's most treasured and distinctive buildings, it is held in trust for the nation and managed by a registered charity which receives no govern ...

, London;

Royal Court Theatre The Royal Court Theatre, at different times known as the Court Theatre, the New Chelsea Theatre, and the Belgravia Theatre, is a non-commercial West End theatre in Sloane Square, in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, London, Englan ...

, London; Royal Festival Hall, London;

Royal Geographical Society The Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers), often shortened to RGS, is a learned society and professional body for geography based in the United Kingdom. Founded in 1830 for the advancement of geographical scien ...

with IGB, London;

Royal National Theatre The Royal National Theatre in London, commonly known as the National Theatre (NT), is one of the United Kingdom's three most prominent publicly funded performing arts venues, alongside the Royal Shakespeare Company and the Royal Opera House. I ...

, London;

Science Museum A science museum is a museum devoted primarily to science. Older science museums tended to concentrate on static displays of objects related to natural history, paleontology, geology, industry and industrial machinery, etc. Modern trends in mu ...

, London; Serpentine Gallery, London; Sibikwa Theatre, Johannesburg;

Singapore Arts Festival Singapore International Festival of Arts (SIFA) is an annual arts festival held in Singapore. It is organised bArts House Limitedfor the National Arts Council. The festival is usually held in mid-year for a stretch of one month and incorporates t ...

; Tamaseel Theatre, Lahore;

Tate Liverpool Tate Liverpool is an art gallery and museum in Liverpool, Merseyside, England, and part of Tate, along with Tate St Ives, Cornwall, Tate Britain, London, and Tate Modern, London. The museum was an initiative of the Merseyside Development C ...

;

Tate Modern Tate Modern is an art gallery located in London. It houses the United Kingdom's national collection of international modern and contemporary art, and forms part of the Tate group together with Tate Britain, Tate Liverpool and Tate St Ives. It is ...

;

Theatre Royal Stratford East The Theatre Royal Stratford East is a 460 seat Victorian producing theatre in Stratford in the London Borough of Newham. Since 1953, it has been the home of the Theatre Workshop company, famously associated with director Joan Littlewood, whose ...

; Tramway Theatre, Glasgow; V&A;

Warwick Arts Centre Warwick Arts Centre is a multi-venue arts complex at the University of Warwick in Coventry, England. It attracts around 300,000 visitors a year to over 3,000 individual events embracing all types of theatre and performance, contemporary and cl ...

; West Yorkshire Playhouse;

Whitney Museum The Whitney Museum of American Art, known informally as "The Whitney", is an art museum in the Meatpacking District and West Village neighborhoods of Manhattan in New York City. It was founded in 1930 by Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney (1875–194 ...

, New York.

Notable productions

Multiwalks
(2013–14) – a suite of artist-led creative walks through 3 city neighbourhoods (Vauxhall and Waterloo in London, England; Santa Croce in Reggio Emilia, Italy; Gronland and Bjorvika in Oslo, Norway). Developed by motiroti in partnership wit
Do Tank StudiosMondinsieme
an
Oslo Intercultural Museum
Multiwalks is a free mobile app available o
iOS
an
Google Play

Potluck: Chicago
(2011-2012) - a residency process at Columbia College Chicago which drew upon art, food, design, urban planning, technology and social enterprise to offer a toolbox for making 'The Local' more vibrant.
Streets of Gold
(2012)- An installation at the Museum of London. Creatively directed by artist Daniel Saul, Streets of Gold offered a fresh vision of London through migrant eyes, and a reminder that cities are built on the dreams of successive newcomers.
Journeys of Love and More Love
(2009-2011) - A live film and media installation with edible interludes, co-production wit
Napoli Teatro Festival Italia
performed in Italian. Later shown at Lilian Baylis at Sadlers Wells in London in 2010. Presented at Art House withi
Melbourne Festival
in October 2011 and at the National Museum of Singapore for its last iteration. *
360°
' (2007–2010) – Bringing to light a rounded contemporary picture of the cultural dynamics between Britain, India and Pakistan. The three-year programme consists o
60x60 Secs
three international Arts Residency Labs and a new collaborative work. * Priceless (2006) ''Priceless'' brought together high-profile art and science institutions together. A multi-site large-scale project involving video and graphic installations, road-shows, mobile units, guided tours to secret archives and major launch event in and around Exhibition Road. Commissioned by the Serpentine Gallery,

Platform for Art Art on the Underground, previously called ''Platform for Art'', is Transport for London's (TfL) contemporary public art programme. It commissions permanent and temporary artworks for London Underground, as well as commissioning artists to creat ...

and The Exhibition Road Cultural Group (

and V&A,

Imperial College London Imperial College London (legally Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine) is a public research university in London, United Kingdom. Its history began with Prince Albert, consort of Queen Victoria, who developed his vision for a cu ...

, and Goethe-Institut London). To date one of the most ambitious projects of the company. *
Alladeen
' (2002–2005) – A co-production with The Builders Association which weaved between the ancient legend of Aladdin from ''1001 nights'' and identity-blurring phenomena found in the teeming metropolises of

Bangalore Bangalore (), officially Bengaluru (), is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of Karnataka. It has a population of more than and a metropolitan population of around , making it the third most populous city and fifth most ...

, London and New York. * ''Celebration Commonwealth'' (2002) – A parade highlighting the

Commonwealth of Nations The Commonwealth of Nations, simply referred to as the Commonwealth, is a political association of 56 member states, the vast majority of which are former territories of the British Empire. The chief institutions of the organisation are the Co ...

and its contribution of peoples and cultures to the United Kingdom for Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom's

Golden Jubilee Weekend The Golden Jubilee of Elizabeth II was the international celebration held in 2002 marking the 50th anniversary of the accession of Queen Elizabeth II on 6 February 1952. It was intended by the Queen to be both a commemoration of her 50 years as ...

. * ''One Night'' (1997) – A piece of visual theatre exploring the shifts between Indian

courtesan Courtesan, in modern usage, is a euphemism for a "kept" mistress or prostitute, particularly one with wealthy, powerful, or influential clients. The term historically referred to a courtier, a person who attended the court of a monarch or other ...

culture, first-generation

British Asian British Asians (also referred to as Asian Britons) are British citizens of Asian descent. They constitute a significant and growing minority of the people living in the United Kingdom, with 6.9% of the population identifying as Asian/Asian Brit ...

s and contemporary student life in the United Kingdom. * ''Wigs of Wonderment'' (1995–1999) – A performance installation challenging the notions of beauty, objectification and the 'exotic' in

Western culture Leonardo da Vinci's ''Vitruvian Man''. Based on the correlations of ideal Body proportions">human proportions with geometry described by the ancient Roman architect Vitruvius in Book III of his treatise ''De architectura''. image:Plato Pio-Cle ...

. * ''Maa'' (1995) – An audacious mix of odd mythic creatures, melodrama, snatches of film, towering carnival costumes and scratch animation. * ''The Seed The Root'' (1995) – A series of site-specific installations and performances exploring gender and cultural imbalances, created in collaboration with local businesses in Brick Lane and international and British artists. * ''Moti Roti, Puttli Chunni'' (1993–1994) – The United Kingdom's first

Bollywood Hindi cinema, popularly known as Bollywood and formerly as Bombay cinema, refers to the film industry based in Mumbai, engaged in production of motion pictures in Hindi language. The popular term Bollywood, is a portmanteau of "Bombay" (fo ...

musical. Winner of Time Out Performance Award * ''Flying Costumes, Floating Tombs'' (1991) – An extravagant spectacle inspired by the Hosay Festival in

Trinidad Trinidad is the larger and more populous of the two major islands of Trinidad and Tobago. The island lies off the northeastern coast of Venezuela and sits on the continental shelf of South America. It is often referred to as the southernmos ...

. Winner of Time Out Performance Award.

Notable collaborators

Mina Anwar Mina Mumtaz Anwar (born 20 September 1969) is a British actress and singer. Early life Anwar was born in Church, Lancashire in 1969. She was educated at Accrington Moorhead High School, and gained an A level in Theatre in Performance at the Acc ...

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References

External links on the UK web archive

summary archive of Motiroti's work

website for Alladeen
motiroti's OBIE award-winning multiplatform collaboration with the Builders' Association;
360° website
including links to sixty one-minute films created in India, Pakistan and the UK as the 60x60Secs project. {{Authority control English artist groups and collectives British contemporary artists