Links

Non-profit Institutions

(from Spain clockwise to Morocco)

www.hangar.org
Hangar is a centre for arts production and research in Barcelona, set up by the Association of Visual Arts of Catalonia (AAVC) in 1997. In addition to its international and national open call for accommodation, Hangar also offers studios, production grants and a series of training workshops for artists.

www.jiser.org
Jiser, which means “bridge” in Arabic, is a non-profit association based in Barcelona, which aims to promote artistic creation and the use of art as a tool for social transformation in the Mediterranean region. It was founded in 2004 in Tunis.

www.zamanbc.com
Crossing through West Asia and the Mediterranean from Africa to Turkey, up until Iran and India, Zamân Books & Curating primary goal is the circulation of new cosmopolitan knowledge about art and images – driven by the efforts to shape the field of Southern modernities.

www.cabanonvertical.com
Le Cabanon Vertical is a multidisciplinary collective in France that combines applied and visual arts. It questions the place of the individual in the urban space, its uses and its freedom to act.

www.sissi-club.com
The art space SISSI club opened in April 2019 in Marseille.

 www.trianglefrance.org
Triangle France – Astérides is a 26 year old non-profit contemporary visual art organization based in a former tobacco factory in the center of Marseille, where it supports artists and serves diverse and expanding audiences.

www.la-compagnie.org
Since 1990 la compagnie in Marseille has been involved helping artists (productions, exhibitions) and has proposed artistics activities to the public, building long-term relationship with inhabitants and non-profit organizations.

 www.calypso3621.com
Out.of.the.blue.map is a context-sensitive, itinerant curatorial research program exploring the notion of permanent liminality within Mediterranean [fluid+solid] territories. Anchored between Morocco, France, and the Netherlands, the program operates a collective and critical rethinking of governance systems shaping the Mediterranean [fluid+solid] borderscapes. 

www.moleskinefoundation.org
The Moleskine Foundation, created in Milan in 2006 as a non-profit organization, focuses on communities affected by cultural and social deprivation and is committed to providing youth with unconventional educational tools that help foster critical thinking, creativity and life-long learning.

sumac.space
Sumac Space—Art Practices of the Middle East as a non-profit platform presenting Contemporary Art from the Middle East through digital programs, critical writing and research. It works with artists and curators, who address contemporary urgencies in the context of the challenging social and political circumstances of the region. Seeking new ways of experiencing art through digital modalities.

www.nation25.com
Around the world, more than 51.5 million individuals have either fled their country or are displaced from their homes due to war and violence. If you considered them as a state, they would represent the 25th nation on Earth. Nation 25 is a platform that seeks to shine a light on the lives of refugees, migrants and the internally displaced.

www.blackhistorymonthflorence.com
Black History Month Florence was founded in 2016 as an inter-institutional network to promote “Black” cultural production that celebrates the diversity of Afro-descendent cultures in the Italian context.

www.bhmbo.it
Black History Month Bologna was born in 2020 as an inter-institutional network to promote “Black” cultural production celebrating the diversity of Afro-descendent cultures in the Bolognese context.

www.ica-me.org
ICA – Institute of contemporary art is an NGO founded in Montenegro in 2013. The main goals are developing and inter-mediating in artistic, theoretical, research and educational productions through socio cultural discourse in Montenegro and connect them to the international space.

www.tiranaartlab.org
Tirana Art Lab – Center for Contemporary Art is an independent, non-profit art institution, founded on the initiative of Adela Demetja in 2010. TAL aims at promoting emerging artists and contemporary art from Albania as well as from Central, Eastern, and South Eastern Europe.

www.stacion.org
Stacion – Center for Contemporary Art Prishtina, established in 2006 is a space for artists, architects, thinkers, designers, critics and other sociopolitical workers committed in reflecting and responding on relevant challenges of the contemporary society.

www.lumbardhi.org
Lumbardhi in Pristina, Kosovo encourages interaction, engagement and collective learning. It invites discourse and research that respond to changing conditions of the local, regional and planetary.

www.thetelossociety.com
THE ΤΕΛΟΣ SOCIETY | TTS is particularly pursuing a creative method of ‘virtual pragmatics’ and ‘topological thinking’, it is oriented to discovering the means to sculpt the virtual space of societies, systems, and ecosystems.

www.souzytros.wordpress.com
Suzy Tros aims to weave together the city of Athens and its inhabitants into a vibrant multicolor network through an open embrace of its diverse communities by organizing art-based projects, events and workshops.

www.stateofconcept.org
State of Concept Athens is a non-profit contemporary art institution founded in 2013. It is an independent platform that fosters the appreciation for local and international contemporary art and the growth of artistic and curatorial practice.

www.zoukak.org
Zoukak is as a non-hierarchical structure, founded in 2006 and dedicated to theatre practice as a social and political involvement, with a belief in theatre as a space for common reflection and in collectivity as a position against marginalizing systems

www.arabimagefoundation.com
The Arab Image Foundation in Beirut is an independent association forging new pathways for photography and image practices. The collection includes over 500,000 photographic objects and documents from and related to the Middle East, North Africa and the Arab diaspora assembled over the last 20 years by artists and researchers and through donations.

www.beirutartcenter.org
beirut art center (bac) is a non-profit association, space and platform in an industrial zone in Beirut dedicated to produce, present and contextualize local and international art researches and cultural practices.

www.mansionblatt.org
Mansion is an attempt at creative reuse, the reclaiming of divested or “failed” spaces for new practices of habitation, public access, encounter, and production. Mansion since 2012 is a shared dwelling and hosts artists, researchers, architects, activists, bicycle delivers, curators, designers, urban activists

www.ashkalalwan.org
Ashkal Alwan, The Lebanese Association for Plastic Arts is a non-profit organization in Beirut, since 1993 committed to contemporary artistic practice, production, research and education. Ashkal Alwan’s programs include Home Works, a multidisciplinary forum on cultural practices taking place every three years.

www.temporaryartplatform.com
TEMPORARY. ART. PLATFORM (T.A.P) is a curatorial platform based in Beirut that supports and encourages art practices concerned with public space, urban and social design, architecture, as well as a contextual approach to curating.

www.creativememory.org
Creative Memory of the Syrian Revolution aims to document all forms of intellectual expression, both artistic and cultural, during the time of the revolution. It aims to build an archive of national intangible heritage and protect  it as collective memory.

www.syriauntold.com
SyriaUntold is an independent Arabic and English online media platform – founded in 2012 in Beirut – advancing critical perspectives on Syria and Syrians.

www.decolonizing.ps
DAAR (Decolonizing Architecture Art Residency) is an architectural collective that combines conceptual speculations and pragmatic spatial interventions, discourse and collective learning.

www.almamalfoundation.org
Al Ma’mal Foundation for Contemporary Art is a non-profit arts organization founded in 1998 and based in the Old City (Jerusalem).

www.massalexandria.wordpress.com
MASS Alexandria, founded in 2010 by the Alexandria artist Wael Shawky, aims to complement existing art education schemes through the exploration of contemporary artistic practices.

www.medrar.org
Medrar sets the stage for artists seeking to have extensive conversations and collaborations with their peers to develop their purpose as active contemporary artists thus creating a more dynamic and inspired movement. This non-profit collective, running since 2005, achieves this through hosting festivals, workshops, and events to stimulate the scene; providing a collaborative space for media artists; documenting and disseminating audio-visual content on the contemporary art movement in Egypt.

www.facebook.com/ShelterArtSpace/
SHELTER Art Space, developed by SIGMA Properties-Egypt, is an art-platform to promote the artistic scene in Alexandria. SHELTER is restoring an old rundown bunker into an art space to host visual arts exhibitions, music performances, workshops and talks.

www.qattanfoundation.org
The A.M. Qattan Foundation (AMQF) is an independent developmental organization working in the fields of culture and education. Founded in 1993 in the UK, the Foundation’s operations are mainly in Palestine, with additional activity in the United Kingdom through The Mosaic Rooms.

www.facebook.com/townhouse-gallery
Townhouse is a nonprofit art space situated in the heart of Downtown Cairo, established in 1998. Currently closed.

www.ciccairo.com
Contemporary Image Collective (CiC) is a Cairo based cultural institution with a special interest in the overlap of visual culture, artistic practice and critical discourse.

www.darb1718.com
Darb 1718 is a non-profit contemporary art & cultural centre in the midst of Old Cairo. Since 2008 it provides workshops, programs and initiatives to educate and mentor emerging artists and offers space to exhibit their work alongside established artists.

www.cairotronica.com
Cairotronica is a festival of Electronic and New Media arts in Cairo, Egypt. Planned to be held biennially. For one week, audiences will be exposed to the latest in electronic arts installations in an interactive environment, as well as attend exhibitions, screenings, workshops and out-door performances.

www.facebook.com/NileSunsetAnnex/
Nile Sunset Annex was founded in January 2013 by the artists Taha Belal, Hady Aboukamar and Jenifer Evans. It functioned (until 2016) primarily as a self-funded, experimental art space which occupied a room in a flat.

www.kamellazaarfoundation.org
Since its founding in 2005, the Kamel Lazaar Foundation for Art and Culture supports artists, research, publication and exhibition initiatives in order to promote Tunisia as a hub for contemporary art.

www.maisonimage.tn
The Maison de l’image is a private cultural centre in Mutuelleville, Tunisia, with a coworking space, an exhibition room, a training room, a projection room and a café.

www.facebook.com/ariaprojects/
aria (artist residency in algiers) hosts emerging and established artists from North Africa and across the world and connects them with local, regional and international networks.

www.facebook.com/box.art.5
BOX 24 is an artist collective in Algiers.

www.facebook.com/Les-Ateliers-Sauvages
Les Ateliers Sauvages is since 2015 an artistic creation centre located in the centre of Algiers. The workshops aim to restore to the city its cultural function and to make debate on the current society through artistic creation.

www.editionsmotifs.com
Motifs is a publishing house founded in 2018 in Algiers. The project was born out of the desire to make Algerian, North African and African literature known more generally.

www.facebook.com/ArchivesNumeriquesDuCinemaAlgerienCasablanca
Since 2014 Nabil Djedouani has been collecting the Algerian audiovisual heritage to make it available on Facebook and YouTube. Algeria does not have a national audiovisual archive rehabilitating, restoring and broadcasting the images of Algerian cinema.

www.facebook.com/archivesfemmmes
Archives des luttes des femmes en Algérie is a collaborative project for the collection and digitisation of documents, photographs etc. relating to women’s/feminist movements in independent Algeria.

www.macaal.org
The Museum of African Contemporary Art Al Maaden (MACAAL) in Marrakech is an independent, not-for-profit contemporary art museum dedicated to the promotion of African art.

www.appartement22.com
L’appartement 22 is an independent, collaborative project founded in 2002 by Abdellah Karroum and based in Rabat, Morocco.

www.lecube-art.com
Le Cube – independent art room is a space of exhibition, residence and research in Rabat. Its approach revolves around projects that raise social, cultural and political questionings and supports proposals that review History and narrative

www.atelierobservatoire.com
The Atelier de l’Observatoire is an art and research space in Casablanca that develops socially engaged participatory projects. It has two areas of activity: the artist’s residence in Casablanca and a space for research, creation and archiving in rural areas in Laasilat, Bouskoura.

www.facebook.com/AssociationTheMinorityGlobe/
The Minority Globe aims to foster the resilience of migrant communities through art and education, both in Morocco and internationally.

www.mahalartspace.com
Independent space dedicated to contemporary art in Tangier.

www.artkulte.com
An independent art centre conceived as a cultural platform dedicated to contemporary art and culture on the African continent, Kulte Gallery & Editions is a publishing house and exhibition space located in Rabat.

www.think-tanger.com
Think Tanger is a cultural platform dedicated to the exploration of urban challenges arising in the city of Tanger. It serves as a platform to concretely address and highlight social and special impacts of urban matters through projects operating at the crossroads of visual arts, design, participatory research and urban practices.

www.le18marrakech.com
Founded in September 2013, Le 18 is an independent platform for creation, dissemination and cultural and artistic exchange. It is supporting emerging artists and wants to connect the cultural scenes of Marrakech to those of the international scene and allow foreign artists to intervene in Marrakech.

Research platforms:

www.unitedagainstracism.org/campaigns/refugee-campaign/working-with-the-list-of-deaths
Since 1993, UNITED has been monitoring the human impact of the policies building so-called “Fortress Europe”; the List of Deaths lists those refugees, asylum seekers and undocumented migrants who have died through their attempts to enter Europe, and as a result of European immigration policies including deportation procedures, detention conditions and the inadequacies of asylum application processes.

www.postcolonialitaly.com
Postcolonial Italy: Mapping Colonial Heritage is a project (started in 2018) that aims to capture and document the material legacy of Italian colonialism.

www.platformharakat.com
From a situated and cross-disciplinary perspective, Platform HARAKAT proposes to retrace the past and contemporary mobility of knowledge(s), bodies and practices in and beyond the Mediterranean region.

www.ex-nunc.org
EX NUNC is a curatorial platform devoted to the investigation and promotion of epistemological alternatives to dominant Western canons. In 2019, EX NUNC resumes its activities with a renovated frame of work, and a thematic focus on the topics of Black Mediterranean.

www.ibraaz.org
Ibraaz, Initiated by the Kamel Lazaar Foundation in 2011, is a critical online forum on visual culture in North Africa and the Middle East. Ibraaz also publishes a series of books under the ‘Visual Culture in the Middle East’ title.

www.bidoun.org
Since 2004, Bidoun has served as a non-profit platform — for new questions, images, and ideas about the Middle East. Bidoun’s activities fall in three primary areas: publishing, educational, and curatorial.

www.facebook.com/MiddleEastStudiesAssoc
AMEA is a non-profit, non-political association which aims to stimulate academic research in Anthropological studies of the Middle East and to advance the study of the Anthropology of the Middle East.

www.journal18.org
Blackness, Immobility, & Visibility in Europe (1600-1800) – A Collaborative Timeline. This crowdsourced timeline chronicles the representation and regulation of black bodies in Europe, circa 1600-1800. As a tool for research and teaching, it allows users to cross-reference artworks and historical events in spatial and visual relation to one another

telemme.mmsh.univ-aix.fr
TELEMMe is a laboratory of the University of Aix-Marseille and the CNRS, composed of historians (from the Middle Ages to the contemporary era), art historians, Hispanists and geographers. For more than 20 years, its full members and doctoral students have been working for a long-term understanding of the societal issues of a southern Europe in interaction with the entire Mediterranean basin and other cultural areas.

www.afikra.org
Afikra is a global organization that aims to promote intellectualism and the diversity and richness of Arab culture and history. Through our monthly events around the world, we’ve built a global community of volunteers, thinkers and explorers.  Afikra started in Brooklyn in 2014 and has since expanded to Washington DC, Montreal, Dubai, Beirut, Bahrain, London & Amman.

www.darjacir.com
Dar Yusuf Nasri Jacir for Art and Research is a grass-roots independent artist–run initiative founded in 2014 and located in the 19th century Jacir family home in Bethlehem. The project is devoted to educational, cultural and agricultural activities.

www.qalqalah.org
Qalqalah قلقلة is an editorial and curatorial platform dedicated to the production, translation and circulation of artistic, theoretical and literary research in three languages: French, Arabic and English. 

www.dongola.com
Dongola creates limited edition art books offering unconventional perspectives on art and contemporary topics in the MENASA region today. Dongola is an experimental intellectual and cultural venture. It seeks the resurfacing of ancient mysteries in the wake of current dissolution, embodied in a book.

www.somecallusbalkans.org
Some call us Balkans includes a series of activities resulting in the co-creation of a mobile forum, opening spaces of encounter and imagination that transgress borders and nationalisms.

www.floatsea.org
Floating Laboratory of Action & Theory is an international experimental platform aiming to generate, pluralize and popularize social-scientific knowledge of the seas through research, teaching, public campaigns and community work.

www.archivioantropologicomediterraneo.it
Archivio Antropologico Mediterraneo is a ranked journal of “Classe A” for academic sector 11/A5 (“Discipline demo-etno-antropologiche) by ANVUR (the national agency in charge of evaluating university and research institutions in Italy).

Tirana Floating Archive
Tirana Floating Archive is a digital platform initiated and implemented by Tirana Art Lab – Center for Contemporary Art, documenting past and present art occurrences in public space in Tirana from the 1990s until today.  Tirana Floating Archive digital platform aims to document past and present public interventions by the independent art scene, which stand for artistic quality and meaningful contribution to public debate about public space.

www.mediterranean-blues.blog
This a repository of Iain Chambers’s writing, link and note. It navigates a series of perspectives and problematics that arise from studying and living the contemporary Mediterranean. Going offshore, it involves encounters with the frequently repressed and refused histories, cultures, lives and archives suspended and sustained in its waters. These push us to plot what Mahmoud Darwish would have called the maps of absence.