The Waiting Gym

Tired of the wait of it all?  

Our state-of-the-art Wait Training environment helps you condition your mind, body and spirit for the challenge of waiting. 

How far are you willing to go to achieve waitlessness? 

Across the UK, refugees and asylum seekers face long waits for housing, for paperwork, for safety. These waits are not neutral; they shape lives, fostering anxiety, disconnection and invisibility. At the same time, access to arts and creative spaces remains limited for those navigating the asylum system, despite overwhelming evidence that creativity can support mental health, belonging, and expression.

The Waiting Gym, a Folkestone Fringe co-commission, is a new interactive installation by artist genuinefake in collaboration with People United and Kent Refugee Action Network (KRAN). Open 19 September – 19 October at 7 Rendezvous Street, Folkestone, the project reframes waiting through movement, play, and imagination. Visitors are invited to “train” their bodies and minds for the act of waiting –  not as passive endurance, but as active resilience.

A Studio of Voices

Developed through The Studio, a co-design initiative centring young people with lived experience of the UK asylum system, The Waiting Gym is the third public artwork produced in Folkestone by this collective. Previous projects (Travel Deep and Holding On), also realised through Folkestone Fringe, challenged audiences to see the asylum experience differently — as lived stories happening in real time, not abstract statistics.