Art and War in Iraq

Ten years since the launch of Operation Iraqi Freedom and twenty-three years since the first Gulf War, the ramifications of the armed invasions and occupations of the Republic of Iraq by the United States continue to be felt by the Iraqi people as well as throughout the Middle East and the world. Amidst these fraught conflicts, artists have offered responses to the complexities of war and the challenges of its aftermath. The Art and War in Iraq symposium brings together American, Iraqi, and Middle Eastern artists, scholars, and critics to address the impacts of the wars in Iraq and the wider conflicts in the Middle East, with special attention to contemporary artistic practices in Iraq and its diaspora.



The symposium marks the opening of the Bell Gallery's spring exhibitions— the American premier of The Ashes Series by Iraqi-American artist Wafaa Bilal and I am Sorry It is Difficult to Start by American artist Daniel Heyman. In addition, a screening of Rory Kennedy’s documentary film entitled Ghosts of Abu Ghraib, will be held on April 18, at 5:30 pm in the List Art Center Auditorium. All events are free and open to the public.



Participants include

Wafaa Bilal, Artist and Assistant Arts Professor, Photography, Tisch School of the Arts, New York University

Lecture: Making the Invisible Visible



Daniel Heyman, Artist and Lecturer, Rhode Island School of Design, and Critic, Princeton University

Lecture: The Iraqi Portraits



Meir Wigoder, School of Communication, Sapir College, Sderot and the Faculty of the Arts, Tel Aviv University

Lecture: The Intermediary-Spaces of Wafaa Bilal's The Ashes Series



Susanne Slavick, Artist and Andrew W. Mellon Professor of Art, Carnegie Mellon University

Lecture: Out of Rubble>



Rijin Sahakian, Founding Director, Sada for contemporary Iraqi art

Lecture: The right to engage: Arts production in Baghdad



Nada Shabout, Associate Professor of Art History and Director of Contemporary Arab and Muslim Cultural Studies Institute (CAMCSI), University of North Texas

Moderator for final panel discussion



Support for the Art and War in Iraq is provided by Brown University’s Woods Lectureship,Center for Middle Eastern Studies, Department of Modern Culture and Media, and Creative Arts Council



Videos available here: http://ianaldenrussell.com/projects/art-and-war-in-iraq