9. Zaid Saad

17 November 2018 / Collaboration, Exhibition

Zaid Saad: Sanduk (Box)

On the riverbank of Tigris

Photo by Christina Werner

Photo by Yasir Razaq/Mahdi Al-Shididy

Photo by Hella Mewis

The site-specific installation ZANDUK (the Arabic word for ‘box’) by Zaid Saad was made of eleven cardboard moving boxes. These boxes were stacked and ready to be transported to an unknown destination. They were labelled ‘From Iraq to the Sea’ and featured stencils of transportation symbols that Saad designed to signal: don’t kill them, don’t put them in jail, don’t return to sender. The installation was accompanied by a sound piece wherein the audience would listen to voices of Iraqis who shared stories about those others who had left Iraq because of the war. Saad addresses the wave of migration that has taken away many Iraqis in the last few years. Mostly the younger generations have been sent abroad, in a way similar to what governments all over the world do during wartime with national treasures and artefacts, to keep them safe outside the country. Yet people are often sent from one insecure situation to another, or even to their death. Saad lends his artistic voice to the mourning families who stay behind and lose their loved ones one way or another, ripping society off its future foundation. The installation is positioned on the riverbank of the Tigris, which leads towards the sea. In the background, on the other side of the river, the wall of the so-called International Zone, where the national decision-makers reside, is visible.

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.

10. Atef Al Jaffal

17 November 2018 / Collaboration, Exhibition ⟶

Atef Al Jaffal: CircleStreet behind Shataa Al Jameel Photos by Christina Werner CIRCLE is a mural by Atef Al Jaffal, a young designer who painted a circle on the exterior wall of an ordinary one-family house and integrated eight images on plates, designed in contrasting colours, with the circle. Each design mirrors disputed issues within the Iraqi community. The images are ambivalent: a veiled woman stands for the discrepancy of tradition versus modern life, intertwined hands point to topics of gender and love, walls and roadblocks tackle questions of danger and control. Al Jaffal sees the country of Iraq as one big family. He thinks that to be able to live a normal life, the people should start to learn to respect each other and allow for different ways of being part of a community. The artist chose this ordinary family home in order to render a clear connection between the bonds of family life and how we operate in the larger community – to raise the question of how our domestic intimacies, responsibilities, and behaviour can influence our participation in society as a whole. Atef Al Jaffal: CircleStreet behind Shataa Al Jameel Photos by Christina Werner CIRCLE is a mural by Atef Al Jaffal, a young designer who painted a circle on the exterior wall of an ordinary one-family house and integrated eight images on plates, designed in contrasting colours, with the circle. Each design mirrors disputed issues within the Iraqi community. The images are ambivalent: a veiled woman stands for the discrepancy of tradition versus modern life, intertwined hands point to topics of gender and love, walls and roadblocks tackle questions of danger and control. Al Jaffal sees the country of Iraq as one big family. He thinks that to be able to live a normal life, the people should start to learn to respect each other and allow for different ways of being part of a community. The artist chose this ordinary family home in order to render a clear connection between the bonds of family life and how we operate in the larger community – to raise the question of how our domestic intimacies, responsibilities, and behaviour can influence our participation in society as a whole.

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9. Zaid Saad

Zaid Saad: Sanduk (Box)

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