Writing Human Rights in Clay: From Cyrus to the Refugee Convention

Led by artist Iman Tajik, this 2-hour participatory workshop invites people of all backgrounds to explore ideas of human rights, displacement, borders, and remembrance through working with clay.

The session will begin with a brief introduction connecting the Cyrus Cylinder (539 BCE), a clay inscription from the Persian Empire often associated with early ideas of humane governance, to the 1951 United Nations Refugee Convention.

Participants will then create clay tiles that may be incorporated into a new artwork by Iman Tajik called The Remembrance Wall / The Wall of Loves, which has been commissioned by Scottish Refugee Council to mark the 75th anniversary of the UN Refugee Convention and which will be presented in June in Glasgow as part of Refugee Festival Scotland. This sculptural installation takes the form of a dry stone-style wall, built from clay tiles created by communities across Scotland. Dry stone walls have been used for centuries across the world to mark land, divide fields, and enclose communities. In this artwork, the wall is reimagined not as a barrier but as a collective monument built from human presence, touch, and solidarity.

At the workshop, participants may choose to make a handprint tile, pressing their hand into clay as a mark of presence, solidarity, and remembrance for people who have lost their lives during migration or while crossing borders. Alternatively, they can create katibeh-inspired tiles, using abstract marks, symbols, lines, or words inspired by values such as home, safety, return, dignity, and protection.

The workshop will provide an opportunity to reflect on belonging, memory, and refuge today, as participants consider the relevance of the Refugee Convention today.

Iman Tajik is an Iranian artist based in Glasgow. His work is anchored in a strong social interest and demonstrates an effort to make work that is a critical tool connected to international movements for social change. Tajik’s work addresses issues of contemporary conditions of life with a particular focus on migration and globalisation – thereby bridging the gap between art and activism, to create work as a form of socio-political currency, addressing power structures.

Iman’s practice involves photography, moving images, sculpture, installations and performance. Through these various mediums, he ’performs the border’ stressing the right to freedom of Movement and the need to resist barriers and boundaries; including those that create a divide between self and others.

Inspired by personal experiences of crossing geographical borders and socio-political barriers, through his work Iman stresses the need to recognise those social and political barriers that favour of some but not all.

http://www.imantajik.com

Age: 12-year-old and over. Aged under 18 should be accompanied by an adult, please book tickets for both people.

No prior arts experience required.

Commissioned by Scottish Refugee Council for Refugee Festival Scotland 2026

Hosted by Edinburgh Sculpture Workshop

Supported by the National Lottery through Creative Scotland