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Venice Biennale
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Iraq War and rise of Islamic State under scrutiny in the Iraq Pavilion

Curator says the show is made in response to the “manifest impossibility of making art in the country”

Gareth Harris
6 May 2015
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The rise of the terrorist group Islamic State (IS) and the Chilcot Inquiry, the British investigation into the 2003 invasion of Iraq, are among the subjects explored by the artists participating in the Iraqi Pavilion, housed in the Ca’ Dandolo on the Grand Canal.

The works on display in “Invisible Beauty” reflect on the state of the beleaguered Middle Eastern nation after years of war and instability. The curator Philippe Van Cauteren, the artistic director of SMAK (the Municipal Museum for Contemporary Art) in Ghent, has sel ected five artists working in Iraq and abroad: Latif Al Ani, Akam Shex Hadi, Haider Jabbar, Rabab Ghazoul and Salam Atta Sabri. The Ruya Foundation for Contemporary Culture in Iraq, a non-governmental body, is responsible for the pavilion.

Van Cauteren explains the reasoning behind the exhibition title. “The invisibility in the country itself is due to a manifest neglect of the potential of a local artistic scene. If one adds to this the absence of a decent infrastructure and the severe predominance of orthodox artistic thinking, then the possibility of making art in Iraq is basically non-existent.”

Salam Atta Sabri is showing his “Letters from Baghdad” series in the pavilion, comprising 110 drawings that can be understood as a “diary in which the artist addresses the existential tragedy he has experienced since his return to his native city of Baghdad in 2005 [after living in the US and Jordan]”, says Van Cauteren.

Atta Sabri says that his drawings are a “memoir’ made in response to the corruption and chaos in the city. Marks resembling the movement of a tornado reflect this anarchy, referring to the upsurge of Islamic State. Other pieces show the Tigris River, barbed wire and concrete blocks, as well as symbols of Iraqi folklore.

Atta Sabri was previously the director of the Museum of Modern Art in Baghdad but now works full-time as an artist. “It is drawing as a form of mourning, as therapeutic consolation, as seeking one’s way out of an almost desperate situation,” says Van Cauteren.

Cardiff-based artist Rabab Ghazoul focuses on the Chilcot enquiry, the British government’s official enquiry in to Britain’s role in the Iraq War between 2001 and 2009. It’s a long way back, a video and performance piece, is based on a 189-minute session of former Prime Minister Tony Blair’s testimonial to the Inquiry in 2010. Ghazoul asked individuals to study the footage, inviting them to repeat Blair’s words or mimic his gestures. Jabbar’s Goya-esque works, meanwhile, include harrowing images of men murdered by IS.

“Each of the artists has a compelling story to tell. And in the horror and despair, beautiful things are being made,” says Tamara Chalabi, the chair of the Ruya Foundation.

Venice Biennale
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