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<\/p>\nThe first thing that hits you is the smell of the jute sacking arrayed on either side of the vast ballroom at 93 Mortimer Street in the heart of London\u2019s Fitzrovia. This is Ibrahim Mahama\u2019s\u00a0Parliament of Ghosts,\u00a0an installation that fills the room with colonial furniture, cushions and plinths evoking the artist\u2019s native Ghana and its past.<\/p>\n
The installation is the first to be shown in a new cultural centre in London, due to open on 15\u00a0October. It is housed across six floors of a historic Grade II-listed mansion that has previously served as a synagogue, a cultural centre and even a Galvanic Hospital. Now it is home to Ibraaz\u2014a multi-disciplinary art space entirely funded by the Kamel Lazaar Foundation, a philanthropic organisation founded by the Swiss-Tunisian investment banker Kamel Lazaar. The founder of the space and vice-president of the foundation is his daughter, the dynamic Lina Lazaar, who studied at the London School of Economics, worked as a specialist for Sotheby\u2019s and lived in Saudi Arabia, where she founded Jeddah Art Week. She relocated to London in 2021.<\/p>\n
\u2018Necessary conversations\u2019<\/p>\n
\u201cThe space is born out of a conviction that freedom of expression is increasingly under threat everywhere,\u201d she says. \u201cThat makes it all the more urgent for private institutions to take responsibility for creating environments where difficult and necessary conversations can take place openly.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Installation view of Ibrahim Mahama\u2019s Parliament of Ghosts at the Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester in 2019<\/p>\n
\u00a9 Ibrahim Mahama. Photo \u00a9 Michael Pollard<\/p>\n
Ibraaz means \u201cto shine a light on\u201d in Arabic, and the space will host events from talks and performances to film screenings and art exhibitions.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are expanding into London\u2019s diasporic community and the wider global majority, from a North African, Arab and Muslim-adjacent position,\u201d Lazaar says. \u201cThe aim is to build on shared histories and future affinities\u2014creating a space that is hospitable, warm and open, but also courageous in facing urgent questions. The idea of courage is very important in our editorial line and programming vision. So we will develop visual exhibitions, music programming and literary events articulated around these ideas.\u201d<\/p>\n
The building comprises a bookshop, a caf\u00e9, a huge screening room in the basement and a \u201clibrary in residence\u201d created by the Otolith Group, as well as spaces for discussions and reflection. A separate but connected building may also be brought into service in the future.<\/p>\n
Ibraaz was launched after the start of the Arab Spring\u2014\u201ca time when everything felt possible, when new horizons were opening and voices long silenced found resonance,\u201d Lazaar says. Initially purely a digital venture, the new home is its first permanent physical space. \u201cWe are seeking to create a pause, a space for encounter, for imagining futures that resist both despair and haste,\u201d Lazaar says.<\/p>\n
The Mahama installation\u2014an evolving work that was shown at the Manchester International Festival in 2019\u2014will remain in place until February 2026, when it will be replaced by another, yet to be announced.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s so much that we don\u2019t know and won\u2019t know until we open our doors,\u201d Lazaar says. \u201cThis is why the launch is very exciting, because I think it\u2019s going to allow us to be in conversation with many protagonists, stakeholders, collectives, other philanthropic organisations that are doing amazing work. I see this space as being a connection between the cultures here and cultures from other regions.\u201d<\/p>\n