Brand new free exhibition celebrates Stockport’s favourite quotes and literature

Shaped by a series of workshops featuring local residents, SUBTEXT is a free, new exhibition set to open at Stockroom on October 15. 

Image credits Stephen McKay

Sharing quotes, memories and thoughts, Stockport residents came together in a series of workshops to help shape a new film-based artwork: Subtitles for a Film That Does Not Yet Exist. 

Led by Parham Ghalamdar, the exhibition celebrates Stockport resident’s favourite quotes and pieces of literature with the aim to explore memory and how people connect with reading in everyday life. The upcoming exhibition delves into the unseen, unspoken and unexpected stories that lie beneath and between written words. 

Subtext explores the layered narratives of texts – whether novels, diaries, scripts, zines, translations or banned books often reveal more about the era, culture and people who created them than the stories themselves. 

“I’m grateful to the Stockroom for making this kind of public work possible,” said Parham Ghalamdar. 

“I wanted to move the work out of the studio and into a shared space of reading, where the artwork is shaped with people and for the people who encounter it. The film begins before there is a film, when people write, edit and imagine together.” 

Inspired by the National Year of Reading 2026, SUBTEXT also aims to fuel the UK-wide campaign designed to inspire more people to make reading a regular part of their lives. 

Councillor Dan Oliver, cabinet member for communities, culture and public protection, said: “Stockroom is all about opening up culture, creativity and learning for people across Stockport, so it is fantastic to see local people playing such an important part in shaping this new exhibition.”