The Kamel Lazaar Foundation responds to the imminent need for the creation and promotion of visual arts in the Maghreb and the Arab World. It is dedicated to providing a forum for dialogue about visual culture in the region and beyond. Through research and publishing initiatives, support for exhibitions, conferences, educational seminars, the development of a collection, and the Kamel Lazaar Projects initiative, the Foundation also aims to develop sustainable and informed levels of debate within the region and beyond. Its long-term ambition is to promote and disseminate creative thought leadership in the visual arts.

We are also committed to cross-community out-reach programmes that involve both local constituencies and an international audience. The Foundation will regularly invite speakers and practitioners to give talks and workshops in Tunis and elsewhere.

The Foundation is also dedicating resources to support an understanding of art as a practice within social and cultural contexts. In supporting artists to develop works and research, we seek to explore not only the final stages of production but the thought processes and levels of engagement involved in producing art.

Carthage, Tunis. Courtesy Kamel Lazaar Foundation.
Carthage, Tunis. Courtesy Kamel Lazaar Foundation.

The Cultural Policies of the Kamel Lazaar Foundation include

the constitution of a rich collection of works of modern and contemporary visual arts in order to conserve and give open access to scholars and students alike for the purpose of further research.
the Foundation plans exhibitions in Tunisia for national and international public visitors to discover the arts of the Maghreb and the Arab world.
we are committed to providing support and guidance for critical and theoretical development and debate about the visual arts.
we promote a series of regular cultural meetings and seminars that contribute to the conception of a national cultural policy with a view to establishing an intellectual and cultural basis for a centre for research into the arts of the Maghreb.
we regularly assist in the publication of relevant texts and research into the arts, culture and humanities.

Proposal for the Kamel Lazaar Foundation Building. Courtesy of Khaled Ayed Architects.
Proposal for the Kamel Lazaar Foundation Building. Courtesy of Khaled Ayed Architects.

Notes for Editors

The Kamel Lazaar Foundation is based in Geneva with offices in Tunis, Paris and London.
The Foundation is a non-governmental organization.
Its Chairman is Kamel Lazaar.
Kamel Lazaar is the founder of the Maghreb Economic Forum and the Chairman of Swicorp.
Before founding Swicorp in 1987, Mr Lazaar was Vice-President at Citibank in North Africa and Saudi Arabia, and was part of the Citibank team that founded the Saudi-American Bank (Samba) in Saudi Arabia.
Mr Lazaar holds an MBA in Finance from the Institut Supérieur de Gestion in Tunis and a BA in Economics from the University of Tunis.
The Foundation, to date, has supported artists, curators, film-makers, academics, and educational initiatives.
For over a decade, the Foundation has tirelessly negotiated and lobbied for a cultural centre in Tunis. Despite having secured the services of Zaha Hadid, in what would have been her first project in the Middle East, the Foundation has yet to be granted permission from successive governments to start building.
The Foundation has an appointed Steering Committee which will oversee its development in 2013 and 2014.
The Foundation has an extensive collection of contemporary art from the Maghreb and Middle East. This collection was started by Mr. Lazaar in the 1980s and developed by his daughter Lina Lazaar Jameel from the 1990s onwards. The collection will be made available on-line for scholars and artists to utilize as a research tool in 2013.
In 2011, at the 54th Venice Biennial, the Foundation launched Ibraaz Publishing and its on-line research forum, www.ibraaz.org.
In 2013, the Foundation launched the Kamel Lazaar Projects (in association with Ibraaz) with a view to supporting the production of artworks engaging with new media and on-line platforms.
The Foundation currently supports ongoing projects in Geneva, Tunis, Mahdia, Bizerte, London, and Paris.
It is expected that the Foundation will run a full series of curated shows, educational events, workshops and symposia in the building.
The Foundation will also support residencies and workshops for writers.