Mission Gathering 00: Why Now

Mission Gathering 00: Why Now?, which took place on 21–22 February 2025, was a closed-door one-and-half-day workshop at Ibraaz’s new home in London. The objective of this inaugural gathering was to open up to collective discussion the future direction of Ibraaz as a physical art space and publishing platform. Through a series of roundtables that were organised around particular themes and questions, interlocutors were invited to share experiences, tactics, strategies, and concerns to help sharpen and refine Ibraaz’s mandate as a transdisciplinary and transcultural platform for art, thinking, and culture. 

We are delighted to publish lightly edited transcripts from these rich and stimulating sessions, which can be read as a polyphonic negotiation of, or notes towards, a mission statement. We have titled this collection of texts ‘Mission Statement 00: Why Now?’ to underscore that this is an unfinished and ongoing conversation. 

Mission Statement OO: Why Now? is presented in the following order. However, readers can engage with these transcripts in the order of their choosing. 

0. Introductions 

Speakers: Lina Lazaar, Stephanie Bailey, Shumon Basar   

00. Firestarter

Speaker: Francesca Albanese 
Respondent: Nadja Argyropoulou   

Session 1. The Anti-Imperial Core: We Were Never Postcolonial

Panellists: Pankaj Mishra, Eyal Weizman, Stephanie Bailey
Moderator: Shumon Basar 
Respondents: Radha D’Souza, Adam Broomberg, Françoise Vergès, Anjalika Sagar, Nour Yakoub, Gaurav Sinha 

Session 2. Why London? Which London? Whose London?

Panellists: Evan Ifekoya, Anjalika Sagar and Kodwo Eshun (The Otolith Group), Tai Shani 
Moderator: Guy Mannes-Abbott 
Respondents: Sophia Al-Maria, Muhannad Hariri, Dima Srouji, Ashkan Sepahvand, Myriam Ben Salah, Taghrid Choucair-Vizoso, Adam Broomberg, Stephanie Bailey, Radha D’Souza   

Session 3. Who are our Audiences, Users, Protagonists?

Panellists: Jonas Staal, Nadja Argyropoulou, Basma al-Sharif 
Moderator: Aya Mousawi 
Respondents: Ashkan Sepahvand, Anjalika Sagar, Sam Samiee, Gaurav Sinha.    

Session 4. Online/Offline Forms of Dissemination 

Panellists: Muhannad Hariri, Al Hassan Elwan, Günseli Yalcinkaya 
Moderator: Shumon Basar 
Respondents: Hannah Cobb, Declan Colquitt, Zein Majali, Malak Helmy, Jaya Klara Brekke, Nesrine Malik, Mona Chalabi   

Session 5. The Building 

Panellists: Ibrahim Mahama, Sumayya Vally 
Moderator: Dima Srouji 
Respondents: Muhannad Hariri, Shumon Basar, Oscar Guardiola-Rivera, Taghrid Choucair-Vizoso, Adam Broomberg, Taous Dahmani, David Velasco, Evan Ifekoya, Nadja Argyropoulou, Sam Samiee   

Session 6. The Organisation: Governance and Structure

Panellists: farid rakun (ruangrupa), Ibrahim Mahama, Jaya Klara Brekke 
Moderator: Stephanie Bailey  
Respondents: Al Hassan Elwan, Muhannad Hariri, Declan Colquitt, Oscar Guardiola-Rivera   

Session 7. Measuring Relevance and Success 

Panellists: Radha D’Souza, Rasha Salti, Anne Barlow  
Moderator: Stephanie Bailey   

Assembly 

Respondents: Shumon Basar, Stephanie Bailey, Gaurav Sinha, Werner Binnenstein-Bachstein, Evan Ifekoya, Adam Broomberg, Tai Shani, Taghrid Choucair-Vizoso, Al Hassan Elwan, Ashkan Sepahvand, Jaya Klara Brekke, Anjalika Sagar, Sumayya Vally, Guy Mannes-Abbott, Myriam Ben Salah, Françoise Vergès   

Closing Remarks 

Speaker: Françoise Vergès