Since its founding in 1991, ifa Gallery Berlin has maintained a practice of reporting on the artistic processes taking place at the margins of Europe. 

Unlike many other cultural institutions of former West Germany, the gallery focused on collaborating with artists and curators from eastern and southeastern Europe, as well as from the Middle East and the ex-Soviet Union, filling a void in the city, which otherwise presented and situated cultural production from many corners of the world.

From the start, it centered radical artistic practices that grew out of territories of political tension and societal fragility. Beginning in the 2000s, the gallery increasingly presented positions from the Global South. When Alya Sebti became director in 2017, succeeding Barbara Barsch, the gallery rose to become an important voice in the postcolonial discourses.