Create
Commissions, experiments and production support for artists making work now.
Arts & culture, rooted in Somalia
Room
to create.
DURBAAN makes space for ambitious work, shared attention and new ways of seeing — rooted in Somalia, in exchange with the world.
Building the first programme
Find your way in
Mogadishu, Somalia
Arts / culture / exchange
Est. 2026
A working proposition
A place for the work that is still becoming.
DURBAAN is an independent organisation for artistic creation, public cultural life and the knowledge that grows around them.
We support people to make, test and share work with care — and to build the conditions for more of it to exist.
See what we make room forThe work
Four ways in.
Our programme is open-ended by design. These are the practices we return to.
Gather
Exhibitions, conversations and public encounters that bring people into the room.
Remember
Documentation and publishing that protect the traces, stories and ideas a culture makes.
Exchange
Connections across Somalia, the region and the wider world — built on reciprocity.
The starting point
Not a gate.
A room.
We are interested in the conditions around culture: who gets to make, who gets to be seen, and what becomes possible when attention is shared.
How we work
Open, exacting, connected.
We are building an organisation with a clear point of view and enough room for the work to surprise us.
Artist-led
The idea comes first. We listen closely, support the process and credit the people who make the work.
Public-minded
Culture is part of public life. We make encounters that welcome attention, questions and participation.
Context-aware
Place matters. We work from Somalia and build exchange that moves in more than one direction.
Right now
Building the conditions.
01 / Foundations
Establishing a durable, independent home for arts and culture in Somalia.
02 / Listening
Working with artists, cultural workers, audiences and institutions to shape the first programme.
03 / Making
Turning the first conversations into commissions, gatherings and shared records.
Keep in touch
There is room
for you.
For artists, partners, researchers, audiences and people who want to help build what comes next.