Cover Image: Tunisia, Tunis, 2023 — Photo by Zied Ben Romdhane / Magnum Photos
Invitation Design: Antonin Langlinay
Why Gather? Book Launch at Le Bal During Paris Photo
Friday 14 November 2025
Book Signing: 17:00 | Talk: 18:00–19:00
@lebalbooks — 6, impasse de la Défense, 75018 Paris
(Part of Paris Photo 2025)
Tom Viaene
14 okt. 2025 • 1 min
Trigger lands in Paris! Join us at Le Bal for the launch of Trigger 6: Assemblies, guest-edited and moderated by Dr Taous R. Dahmani, London-based French, British, and Algerian art historian and newly appointed curator at The Photographers’ Gallery.
✨ Subscribe for the launch via this link! 👈🏼
Assemblies reimagines gathering as both a political act and a way of life. Moving across the SWANA region (Southwest Asia and North Africa), the book brings together photographs, essays, and a rich archive exploring protest, ritual, and fleeting encounters. It asks: what does it mean to gather when gathering is the last thing left to do?
Featuring a conversation with:
Taous Dahmani — Moderator, guiding the discussion through the themes of political gatherings and radical agency.
Hoda Afshar — Iranian Australian artist exploring visibility, displacement, and voice.
Joyce Joumaa — Lebanese Canadian visual artist and writer, examining microhistories, space, and affective memory.
Roï Saade — Lebanese photographer, designer, and founder of Huwawa, investigating collective memory and anti-colonial storytelling.
Abdo Shanan — Algerian Sudanese photographer reflecting on identity, migration, and postcolonial memory.
The project began with the Assembly exhibition at Jaou Tunis 2024 (Kamel Lazaar Foundation / Ibraaz) and now unfolds into a 320-page volume designed by Hans Gremmen and published with Fw:Books. Alongside the speakers, the book features contributions from Omar Berrada, Imen Bahri, Zied Ben Romdhane, Larissa Sansour, Céline Semaan, Maen Hammad, Didem Pekün, aka TAWLA, and many more. An extensive archive section includes Mashid Mohadjerin, Joyce Joumaa, Arab Image Foundation, Ferhas Publishing Practices, and others.