Sainsbury Centre: Can we stop killing each other?

The radical exhibition programme at The Sainsbury Centre, Norwich seeks to answer the most important questions in our lives. The latest wrestles with one of the darkest and deadliest aspects of humanity: Can We Stop Killing Each Other?

Giordano, The Brazen Serpent © Compton Verney

The series explores the fundamental question of why humans are led to kill and how art, film, TV and culture has grappled with, or even aggravated, our proximity to violence.

According to the Global Peace Index 2024, one hundred countries have been “at least partially involved in some form of external conflict in the past five years, up from 59 in 2008”. Can We Stop Killing Each Other? asks if creative thinkers, and the art they produce, can use human empathy to create change – asking humanity to choose hope over violence.

The season of five exhibitions includes a monumental installation by Aotearoa/New Zealand artist Anton Forde (Taranaki Māori, Gaelic, Geltacht, English) and a series of new paintings reflecting on the refugee crisis by Ethiopian artist Tesfaye Urgessa; as well as presentations of historical artworks such as Claude Monet’s The Petit Bras of the Seine at Argenteuil (1872) as part of the The National Gallery Masterpiece Tour, and an exhibition spanning Shakespearean tragedy to Hitchcockian spectacle, which asks how violent stage and screen narratives can invite questions about our own morality, cultural codes and religious beliefs.

It is accompanied by a book, published by Kulturalis in September 2025, which features new texts, including by British historian and academic Joanna Bourke and Michael Steedman, deputy pro vice-chancellor Māori | Kaiarataki at the University of Auckland.

Tiaki Ora ∞ Protecting Life: Anton Forde
2 August 2025 – 19 April 2026

Tiaki Ora Protecting Life

Anton Forde’s (b.1973), Invercargill, Aotearoa (Taranaki Māori, Gaelic, Gaeltacht, English) monumental installation of 81 over-life-size figures, Papare Eighty.one (2024) with Shiree Reihana (Ngāpuhi, Ngāi Tūteauru), is shown in the UK for the first time in a new site-specific configuration and incorporating one of the earliest surviving wooden Māori figures in Europe, held in the Sainsbury Centre’s collection.

The wooden figures (pou), hand carved by Forde at 8.2 feet tall, are presented in a defensive V-shaped formation inspired by migratory birds’ united flying formation, wear Kākahu/cloaks woven by kaiwhatu (traditional Māori weaver) Shiree Reihana – which elevate the honour of the individual pou as well as the collective work – as well as a Pounamu/nephrite teardrop necklace, seen as a token of sympathy and shared emotion.

Forde’s work connects with the peaceful actions of the pacifist Māori community at Parihaka, New Zealand in November 1881, in the face of a British colonial invasion, and the many examples of similar world-wide powerful peaceful responses that have been inspired by Parihaka. It is a call for kotahitanga: unity, togetherness and solidarity. It shows that collective action can safeguard the future of our communities for generations to come, without need for killing – both physically and culturally.

In addition, Anton Forde has carved a new outdoor work especially for the Sainsbury Centre, which will remain on display for a period of three years. Tokiwai / Water Adze is inspired by the first tools that were used by man to cut, create, build, weave, skin and dig water trenches that allow water to flow and give life.

Eyewitness
20 September 2025 – 15 February 2026

Kagotsurube sato no eizame, 1888

Why are people across the world so fascinated by the dramatisation of killing? From Shakespearean tragedy to Hitchcock’s Psycho, the spectacle of violence is central to performance traditions around the world. Through an exploration of historical and contemporary works by international artists, grappling with the horrors of homicide, Eyewitness considers how violent stage and screen narratives can invite questions about our own morality, cultural codes and religious beliefs.

From hand-operated glove puppets to the sophisticated technology of large productions, the materiality of performance can provide an entry point for viewers to discuss how frameworks of justice and ethics are established by societies. What effect does witnessing so much violence in our daily lives have?

Roots of Resilience: Tesfaye Urgessa
20 September 2025 – 15 February 2026

Tesfaye Urgessa, No country for young men, 31. Courtesy of Cheng-Lan Art Foundation and Saatchi Yates

Shaped by themes of geographical displacement and migration, internationally acclaimed Ethiopian artist Tesfaye Urgessa creates powerfully visceral paintings that interrogate the politics of war, race and identity.

Following a residency with the Sainsbury Centre, Urgessa will unveil a series of new paintings reflecting on the refugee crisis, which have been created in dialogue with the museum’s collection. Works will investigate layered narratives of war, migration, and survival, reflecting on resilience.

Roots of Resilience refigures the human body not as broken, but as bearing dignity, defiance, and the enduring capacity to heal. The human figure reflects not only personal and collective trauma, but also our potential for empathy, endurance, and transformation.

Works from the Sainsbury Centre’s global collection, such as Pablo Picasso’s Woman combing her Hair (1906), and Henry Moore’s Mother and Child (1932), among others, serve as key sources of inspiration and resonate with Urgessa’s own practice.

The National Gallery Masterpiece Tour: Reflections on Peace
20 September 2025 – 11 January 2026

Claude Monet, The Petit Bras of the Seine at Argenteuil, 1872, Copyright The National Gallery

Claude Monet’s The Petit Bras of the Seine at Argenteuil (1872) is presented in a multi-sensory reflective space within the Sainsbury Centre, which encourages contemplation around the importance of sanctuary and a safe home.

The reflective space will mark the first edition of The National Gallery Masterpiece Tour 2025–27, of which the Sainsbury Centre has been selected, alongside three other partners.

Monet spent a year in voluntary exile in England and the Netherlands during the Franco-Prussian War, returning to France in 1871 where he settled in Argenteuil near the river Seine. Here, having found a sense of stability and home, his artwork flourished as he created paintings inspired by his surroundings, such as The Petit Bras of the Seine at Argenteuil. The presentation of this evocative work will be used to develop and research trauma-informed cafes as part of the Sainsbury Centre’s Compassionate Museum programme. These will be co-created with a range of partners working in the field of mental health and support for migrants, refugees and asylum seekers.

Seeds of Hate and Hope
28 November 2025 – 17 May 2026

Mona Hatoum Hot Spot 2006

Seeds of Hate and Hope highlights personal artistic responses to global atrocities, such as genocides, ethnic cleansing, war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Through the 20th and 21st centuries artists have witnessed, experienced, and responded to atrocity crimes with powerful and compelling works. This exhibition, featuring works from Mona Hatoum, William Kentridge, Hew Locke, Zoran Mušič, Peter Oloya and Kimberly Fulton Orozco, Indrė Šerpytytė, and more, aims to bring understanding as to why and how these crimes occur, and the ever-present desire to find peace. Focussing on abstract representations, rather than literal or explicit violence, Seeds of Hate and Hope challenges the typical representations of war and ‘trauma porn’ often dispelled through the media. It will reveal the seeds of resilience, both individual and collective, sown during conflict, and highlight how respect for diversity is fundamental in protecting against the dangers of prejudice, hate speech, discrimination and dehumanisation.