The Curator: Lina Lazaar

The Jaou Tunis Biennale has gathered artists from the Global South to promote dialogue through exhibitions, concerts and performances since 2013. Founder Lina Lazaar, of the Kamel Lazaar Foundation, is behind some of the most prominent initiatives that promote contemporary art from the African continent and the Arab world, including the London-based gallery Ibraaz and the curation of the Tunisian pavilion at the 57th Venice Biennale.

Speaking with The Art Journal as the eighth edition launched last week, she discusses the festival’s new partnerships, the richness of the Tunisian art scene and the importance of creating spaces for diverse voices across the Mediterranean.

The Art Journal: What can visitors expect from this edition?

Lina Lazaar: Jaou has grown quite organically, through encounters, lasting relationships and mutual trust. This edition is the result of all that.

Together with Andrea Bellini and the Centre d’Art Contemporain Genève, we developed ‘Becoming the Ocean’ at the Caserne El Attarine. We have brought together 16 artists from Africa, the Arab world, Asia, Latin America and their diasporas. This mutual trust has allowed us to give artists considerable creative freedom and to work together to make their projects possible.

This edition also comes at a particularly difficult time. In the face of the genocide in Palestine, ongoing wars and deepening divisions, bringing artists, thinkers and audiences together holds particular significance for me. We need these spaces to reflect together, to listen to different narratives, but also to experience joy. That joy matters too.

TAJ: Art Explora is one of the two new partners of the Biennial this year. How does its ethos align with Jaou Tunis’ work?

L.L.: What Jaou and Art Explora have in common is a fairly simple conviction: art only matters if it travels, and it is up to us to go to audiences rather than wait for them to come to us. Its free travelling festival has been running since 2024, docking in 15 port cities across 11 countries and welcoming more than 400,000 visitors. At every stop, the programme is built with local institutions, artists and associations. We work the same way.

In Tunis, it takes a particular form: for the first time, the festival will arrive without its museum-boat, so it is the city that hosts it. The exhibition 'Contre ; Courant / Undertow' is showing at the B7L9 arts centre while a month-long programme unfolds at Le 4ème Art, the Cité de la Culture and the Théâtre des Jeunes Créateurs. Our own cultural venues carry the festival and the stopover remains very accessible: the exhibition and public programmes are free, and performances cost five dinars.

TAJ: How has Tunis’s art scene evolved in recent years, and what does the Biennale bring to it?

L.L.: I would be cautious about suggesting that the Tunisian art scene needs an event like Jaou in order to exist or gain recognition. There is an incredibly rich artistic history here, remarkable artists and initiatives driven by great conviction, often with very limited resources.

What we try to do, in our own way, is create the conditions for projects to come to life: supporting an artist, funding the production of a work, providing space, time and expertise. This is work that develops over the long term. Jaou is a moment when that work becomes visible and reaches an audience.

I also care deeply about our ability to tell our own stories. From Tunis, from the African continent and the Arab world, we have experiences, knowledge and perspectives that deserve to shape conversations about the world today.

This also involves very practical initiatives. For this edition, 30 people in Tunisia have received technical training in audiovisual installation. At the Caserne El Attarine, we have also undertaken restoration work and the transmission of traditional skills in collaboration with our partners. The exhibitions are temporary, but the skills acquired, relationships built between teams and the opportunities to work together again can continue to have an impact long after Jaou has ended.

TAJ: An artist, exhibition or event highlight of this edition?

L.L.: It is always difficult to choose, because every project represents a relationship and a story that matters to me. I would highlight 'Becoming the Ocean' at the Caserne El Attarine. For me, the title evokes our ability to carry stories that extend beyond our own. At this particular moment, I believe that being open to the experiences of others, and allowing ourselves to be moved by them, is essential.

And then there is 'Gathering', by Samar Haddad King and Yaa Samar! Dance Theatre, as well as the concerts and discussions. This diversity of ways to experience Jaou is something I value greatly. People might come for an artwork, a conversation or a concert, and then find themselves drawn towards something entirely unfamiliar.