London arts centre to amplify global majority voices and ‘urgent questions’ | Culture

A new London art institution aimed at promoting global majority voices wants to be a space for “difficult, urgent questions” alongside civil debate, according to its founder, who claims freedom of expression is under threat.

Ibraaz will open this coming October in Fitzrovia, central London, and Lina Lazaar wants the 10,000-square-foot Grade II-listed building to become a bastion for respectful debate without the “aggression” seen in a lot of political discourse.

It is funded by the Kamel Lazaar Foundation, the philanthropic organisation named after Lina’s father, the Tunisian businessman who founded financial services group Swicorp before becoming a supporter of the arts in his home country.

Lina Lazaar’s father has long advocated for north African and Middle Eastern art, but Ibraaz, which began life as an online platform, will launch as a home for global majority art and artists.

“There has never been a greater need to create the conditions for genuine dialogue and a space for inquiry,” Lina Lazaar said.

“Freedom of expression is shrinking, in the press, on campuses and some institutions as well. I think we’re living in a state of deep despair and inequalities. Having an additional space where people can tackle difficult, urgent, important questions in a way that is open, genuinely sincere and respectful, can only be a positive.”

Its first exhibition will be Ibrahim Mahama’s long-running, evolving work Parliament of Ghosts, which also appeared at the Manchester international festival in 2019 and features discarded objects from Mahama’s west African homeland of Ghana.

The Otolith Collective will create a “library-in-residence”, while the east London booksellers Burley Fisher will run Ibraaz’s bookshop, which the Palestine festival of literature will initially curate. There will also be a talks programme.

Lazaar says that recently some arts institutions and organisations have been uncomfortable hosting discussions or artists who have tackled weighty issues.

Last February, the Barbican was criticised after it backed out of hosting a lecture series that included a talk about the Holocaust and allegations that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza. Shortly afterwards, across the cultural landscape, there was outrage after Arts Council England warned that “political statements” could break funding agreements, before U-turning.

The Kamel Lazaar Foundation is one of many privately run arts institutions in Africa, alongside Fondation H in Madagascar, 32Bis in Tunisia, Fondation Zinsou in Benin and the Zeitz Mocaa in South Africa.

Lazaar says not being beholden to public funds means Ibraaz can have more freedom to host challenging works or ideas. “Those spaces have historically made institutions feel a little bit uncomfortable and we want to be able to exist at that edge of discomfort,” said Lazaar. “That’s the only way I believe that institution will be in a position to be consequential in shaping discourse.”

Ibraaz’s home is 93 Mortimer Street, an address that has had many incarnations. It was a synagogue, the residence of Conservative politician Sir Robert Bateson Harvey, the London Galvanic hospital and the German Athenaeum – a cultural club for artists, musicians, and businessmen.

Lazaar says she was “uncomfortable” with the space at first. It was grand and symbolised an old world opulence, rooted in British history and wealth – the kind of place where the people Ibraaz is trying to attract wouldn’t have been welcome.

But she says she now thinks of Ibraaz opening in the heart of Fitzrovia as a chance to “reclaim the space” and bring in “marginalised” voices.

As well as an arts programme, there will be a music offering and a “café-in-residence” led by Tunisian chef Boutheina Ben Salem, which Lazaar says is a key part of “cultural hospitality”.

“I genuinely believe that with real cultural hospitality and care you are able to rebuild environments where the most kind of pressing and controversial and difficult, complex, layered issues should and can be debated, but in a civil way.”