The Institute of Contemporary Arts reopened on July 7th with War Inna Babylon: The Community’s Struggle for Truths and Rights, an exhibition curated by London-based racial advocacy and community organisation, Tottenham Rights, together with independent curators Kamara Scott and Rianna Jade Parker.

Ten years on from the UK-wide riots sparked by the police killing of Mark Duggan, this exhibition shines a light on the vast range of collective actions, resistance and grassroots activism undertaken by Black communities across the UK in response to over seven decades of societal and institutional racism.

Using the ‘symbolic location’ of Tottenham, a neighbourhood that has received much attention in recent years due to its history of racial conflicts and heavy-handed policing; this exhibition combines archival material, documentary photography, film and state-of-the art 3D technology to ‘act as a window to the past and as a mirror for our present-day social climate’.

War Inna Babylon chronicles the impact of various forms of state violence and institutional racism targeted at Britain’s Black communities since the mass arrival upon-invitation of West Indian migrants in the late 1940s.

The exhibition includes original tributes from victims’ families, case studies of the controversial ‘sus’ (suspected person) laws and the Gangs’ Matrix, and highlights legal developments that have resulted from Black justice campaigns.

War Inna Babylon will also present a new investigation into the killing of Mark Duggan by Forensic Architecture.

The exhibition, the first of its kind to accurately assess the conditions of Black lives across Britain, will be accompanied by an extensive public programme presented both in Tottenham and at the ICA that will include film screenings, community educational groups, talks, cultural events, performances, and a digital presentation focusing on the interrelation between artificial intelligence (AI) and racism.

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