Initiated by the Kamel Lazaar Foundation, Ibraaz is now in its second year of production since launching at the 54th Venice Biennale. Since then, Ibraaz has published over 200 contributions in the form of interviews, essays, and artists’ projects. In October this year, Ibraaz was pleased to stage a performance by Joana Hadjithomas and Khalil Joreige in association with the Institute of International Visual Arts in London and Frieze Events. Ibraaz would like to thank the artists for their participation, and all who attended.
For Platform 004, launching on November 2nd, we have posed a question that looks at new media in artistic practices and activism, alongside its perceived role as a social agent in North Africa and the Middle East today. We are very pleased to announce that we received a significant number of informed and engaging responses to our question from, amongst many others, Nat Muller, Rijin Sahakian, Jeannine Tang, Anne Barlow, Sarah Samy, Sama Alshaibi, Ricardo Mbarkho, Ganzeer, Nermin Saybaşılı, Lantian Xie, and Basak Senova. We would like to formally thank all those who have contributed to this and previous platforms.
The current platform responses and others can be read at www.ibraaz.org/platforms, and the fully searchable archive is available at www.ibraaz.org.
As part of our ongoing commitment to publishing full-length essays, Ibraaz will publish commissioned essays by Franco Berardi Bifo, Sheyma Buali, Ghalia Elsrakbi and Lauren Alexander, Zeigam Azizov, Tarek Khoury, A.S. Bruckstein Çoruh, Cleo Jay, Jens Maier-Rothe, Azin Feizabadi and Dina Kafafi, and Anthony Downey.
We are also pleased to announce that these and other commissioned essays will appear in the first volume in a new series of edited books about visual culture in the region. This material will be produced by Ibraaz in partnership with I.B. Tauris in early 2013.
Platform 004 will also see the publication of interviews with Hassan Khan, Shady El Noshokaty, Lida Abdul, Adel Abidin, Jeanno Gaussi, Roy Samaha, Tarek Al-Ghoussein, Guy Mannes-Abbott, Diana Al-Hadid, and Amina Menia. As part of Platform 004 Projects, we will also feature artists’ projects by Larissa Sansour (which draws on the ongoing work Nation Estate), and a project by the Saaheb collective looking at new media and activism in the south Hebron hills in the West Bank. We will also feature a video by Basel Abbas and Ruanne Abou-Rahme; drawings by Makan; a new artwork from Alexandria-based artist Mahmoud Khaled, and works by Yousef Moscatello.
In the weeks following the launch of Platform 004, Ibraaz will be publishing interviews with Ismaël Touati, Pauline M’Barek, Zeina Arida, Abbas Akhavan, Michael Rakowitz, and Pascal Hachem, and essays by Sarah Covington, Timo Kaabi-Linke, Farah Makni, Jasmina Metwaly, and Derya Yucel.
We are also pleased to announce the launch of Ibraaz Version 2.0 in conjunction with the launch of Platform 004. Ibraaz 2.0 has been designed to reflect the significant amount of content on our site and encourage the use of our ever-expanding archive. New features such as the ‘Related Content’ and ‘Most Viewed’ sidebars will also allow visitors to explore the expanding web of material according to artist, author and region of interest. All galleries have also been redesigned to ensure the quality of images and easy access to them.
Ibraaz is an online publishing forum initiated by the Kamel Lazaar Foundation. It publishes essays, interviews and artists’ projects on visual culture within and beyond North Africa and the Middle East.
Ibraaz Platform 005 will be launched in May 2013.