London to Welcome Private Museum Focused on Global Majority Art
A new institution centering global majority art and artists is slated to open in London this October. Founded by Lina Lazaar, and funded by the Geneva-based Kamel Lazaar Foundation, the nonprofit philanthropic organization established by and named for her father, a Tunisian businessman and arts supporter, the museum will be named Ibraaz, after the Arabic term for “shine a light.” It will be housed in a 10,000-square-foot building in London’s central Fitzrovia neighborhood that over the years has served as a synagogue, the home of Conservative politician Robert Bateson Harvey, the site of the London Galvanic hospital and the German Athenaeum.
Ibraaz arises from the eponymous online platform, launched in 2011 and centering art and culture from the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. The museum’s inaugural exhibition will be a solo show by Ghanaian artist Ibrahim Mahama titled “Parliament of Ghosts.” The Otolith Collective is set to create a “library-in-residence,” while a “bookshop-in-residence” will initially be curated by the Palestine Festival of Literature. A talks program is also in the works.
Speaking with The Guardian, Lazaar noted that arts organizations had lately been reluctant to host discussions or exhibit the work of artists who take on weighty topics, and that she aimed for Ibraaz to be a space where civil discourse and debate on politically sensitive subjects were welcomed.
“There has never been a greater need to create the conditions for genuine dialogue and a space for inquiry,” she told the British publication. “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.”
