7. Akram Assam

17 November 2018 / Collaboration, Exhibition

Akram Assam: The History Tree

At Bait Tarkib

Photos by Christina Werner

Photo by Yasir Razaq/Mahdi Al-Shididy

THE HISTORY TREE by Akram Assam was an installation of a tree trunk, and the annual rings on its surface were painted in a variety of colours. Larger coloured ellipses were also drawn into the packed earth surrounding the trunk, resembling planetary orbits. Each coloured ring reflected a historical period of the Republic of Iraq, and the rings on the ground expanded beyond the lifetime of the tree. Each visitor was invited to take a notepad and write down an event that was an important marker in time for them, imagining the relation of the life span of the tree, their individual lifetime, and the historical moment. Placed on the rooftop of the creative arts centre BAIT TARKIB, the tree – when imagined in full growth – seems to blend in with the row of palm trees in the neighbouring yards. It rooted the location of BAIT TARKIB in the neighbourhood and the city’s history. BAIT TARKIB is in a typical Baghdad building, originally a family home that was built in the 1920s, when the Republic of Iraq was founded.

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Baghdad Walk I

16 - 17 November 2018 / Collaboration, Exhibition ⟶

BAGHDAD WALKGroup exhibition in public space Baghdad Walk is a group exhibition by emerging Iraqi artists presented in the public space and in different locations in Karada, Baghdad. The walk starts at Iraqi Independent Film Centre, leads along Al Rasheed Street to Midan Square, connects Tayeran Square, Tahrir Square and Kahramana Square, spreads along the Abu Nawas riverside and meanders through Karada neighborhood, featuring time-based works and interventions. Baghdad Walk is an exhibition and a narrative tour of the city. The participating artists connect their works with the specific locations, introducing background information on site. Manifold stories about the city of Baghdad are told and retold anew through the artists’ perspectives and the encounters they create. Participants: Ahmed Al Saad, Tabarek Al Atrakchi, Akram Assam, Ameen Mokdad, Ammar Hussein, Atef Al Jaffal, Hussam Mohammed, Hussain Muttar, Loay Al Hadhary, Muhaned Taha, Zaid Saad. — Please find the project’s bilingual (Englisch-Arabic) website here. — Baghdad Walk is the result of a workshop series Arts Seminar in Baghdad, conceived and organised by the Goethe-Institut Irak, in collaboration with the Institut für Raumexperimente (Institut for Spatial Experiments), Berlin and hosted by TARKIB Baghdad Contemporary Arts Institute in BAIT TARKIB. Hosted by TARKIB Baghdad Contemporary Arts Institute. Choreographed by Hella Mewis and Christina Werner BAGHDAD WALKGroup exhibition in public space Baghdad Walk is a group exhibition by emerging Iraqi artists presented in the public space and in different locations in Karada, Baghdad. The walk starts at Iraqi Independent Film Centre, leads along Al Rasheed Street to Midan Square, connects Tayeran Square, Tahrir Square and Kahramana Square, spreads along the Abu Nawas riverside and meanders through Karada neighborhood, featuring time-based works and interventions. Baghdad Walk is an exhibition and a narrative tour of the city. The participating artists connect their works with the specific locations, introducing background information on site. Manifold stories about the city of Baghdad are told and retold anew through the artists’ perspectives and the encounters they create. Participants: Ahmed Al Saad, Tabarek Al Atrakchi, Akram Assam, Ameen Mokdad, Ammar Hussein, Atef Al Jaffal, Hussam Mohammed, Hussain Muttar, Loay Al Hadhary, Muhaned Taha, Zaid Saad. — Please find the project’s bilingual (Englisch-Arabic) website here. — Baghdad Walk is the result of a workshop series Arts Seminar in Baghdad, conceived and organised by the Goethe-Institut Irak, in collaboration with the Institut für Raumexperimente (Institut for Spatial Experiments), Berlin and hosted by TARKIB Baghdad Contemporary Arts Institute in BAIT TARKIB. Hosted by TARKIB Baghdad Contemporary Arts Institute. Choreographed by Hella Mewis and Christina Werner

8. Ameen Mokdad

17 November 2018 / Collaboration, Exhibition ⟶

Ameen Mokdad: Sonic InterventionAt Abu Nawas Theater Photo by Christina Werner Photo by Hella Mewis Photo by Yasir Razaq/Mahdi Al-Shididy Video by Christina Werner Composer and musician Ameen Mokdad conducted a body-percussion event, using the human body as an instrument to create sounds and vibrations. All participants in the BAGHDAD WALK were invited to join on stage and take part in the performance. The group exercise took place on the stage of the derelict, empty, and unused Abu Nawas Theatre, playing off the architectural features and astounding acoustics of the space. Mokdad is interested in activating social interaction through music; the participants were encouraged to listen to each other, letting the rhythm of their movements fall in sync, creating a small concert with nothing more than an exercise of collaboration. While everyone involved was both on stage and ‘in’ the audience at the same time, they experienced a sense of what the building once was, and what it could be used for again. The Abu Nawas Theatre was once one of the main attractions on the boulevard Abu Nawas, which follows the riverside of the Tigris and mostly used to host film screenings. Because the unresolved property situation today keeps private investors away, the theatre building is currently in the hands of the city administration and mainly used as a waste-disposal site. Ameen Mokdad: Sonic InterventionAt Abu Nawas Theater Photo by Christina Werner Photo by Hella Mewis Photo by Yasir Razaq/Mahdi Al-Shididy Video by Christina Werner Composer and musician Ameen Mokdad conducted a body-percussion event, using the human body as an instrument to create sounds and vibrations. All participants in the BAGHDAD WALK were invited to join on stage and take part in the performance. The group exercise took place on the stage of the derelict, empty, and unused Abu Nawas Theatre, playing off the architectural features and astounding acoustics of the space. Mokdad is interested in activating social interaction through music; the participants were encouraged to listen to each other, letting the rhythm of their movements fall in sync, creating a small concert with nothing more than an exercise of collaboration. While everyone involved was both on stage and ‘in’ the audience at the same time, they experienced a sense of what the building once was, and what it could be used for again. The Abu Nawas Theatre was once one of the main attractions on the boulevard Abu Nawas, which follows the riverside of the Tigris and mostly used to host film screenings. Because the unresolved property situation today keeps private investors away, the theatre building is currently in the hands of the city administration and mainly used as a waste-disposal site.

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7. Akram Assam

Akram Assam: The History Tree

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