8. TARKIB Baghdad Contemporary Arts
TARKIB Baghdad Contemporary Arts Festival is an annual multidisciplinary art festival. The eighth edition took place at the Iraqi Artists Syndicate in Al Rasheed Street from October 6 to 9, 2022.
The heart of the festival is a group exhibition with artworks by 17 young Iraqi artists. The two foors of the traditional Shanashil house was transferred into a showcase presenting installations, sculptures, photography, paintings, video-animations, performances as well as virtual reality experiences.
Subjects discussed are inspired by and connected to the daily life and experiences the young generation in Iraq encounters, are distinctive of critical thinking and future-oriented perspectives. The VR work took the visitors on a journey through the imaginary.
The additional program featured music, literature and flms by mainly midcareer Iraqi artists.
Exhibiting Artists:
Aishe, Noor Abd Ali, Zeena Kareem, Furqan Mohammed, Jumana Ridha, Hajer Qusay, Amir Akram, Lwaa Alhsanee, Loay
Al Hadhary, Atef Al Jafal, Sarhand Khaled, Hussam Mohammed, Hussain Muttar, Zaid Saad, Muhaned Taha, Ali Ziyad, Dhiyar Ziyad
Artists Additional Program: Concerts: Sanjat, Anima
Readings: Maha Atteah, Enas Filip, Hussain Muttar, Mohammed Adnan, Mounir Salah
Films: “Black Out” by Hajer Qusay, “Haiku” by Mounir Salah, “Last Dream” by Malak Abd Ali, “50/50” by Khaled Abdul Nassir
The dual sculpture, which appears in two diferent locations and is visible from three spots, refers to Nietzsche’s philosophy about freedom interpreted from the perspective of an architectural view. Tectonic is defned as the art of consruction. Ali Ziyad, who is sudying architecture, merges the art of consruction with Nietzsche’s philosophy of freedom. His two sculptures are composed of silver iron bars, diferent in length and space to each other. He arranged the bars with no specifc directions or centrality, which reminds you on the universe. Two bright lines of light are part of each single insallation sculpt. The light sands for freedom, which is limited in access.
“What is freedom?
It is for a person to have a personal responsibility, for a person to remain committed to the disance that separates him from others, to be indiferent towards efort, cruelty, deprivation and even towards life itself. A free person shines despite the darkness that exiss.The transcendence of the self is Nietzsche’s ontological law of life and development, and the principle of transcendence that should lead to man. Self-overcoming is the decisive moment of becoming as creativity, will, self-negation, self-overcoming.” Ali Ziyad
TECTONIC
A life ring is supposed to save people’s life. But, what means a life ring for a refugee? Zaid Saad, a visual artis who is devoted to conceptual art, is asking what is written on the wall: “Is the life ring, that is ofered to refugees, really a life saver?”.
We see three life rings made out of concrete, hanging on the wall. We see a halved life ring made out of concrete on the ground. Concrete is heavy, like the decision you make to become a refugee, your experience on your journey as a refugee, your shock, how the desination country is dealing with you as a refugee. You think you are a human being, but you are only concrete, heavy to deal with. We see the colour of submarine, what people see if they are drowning. Our feet feel the water, what people feel if they are drowning.
The colour orange is supposed to warn, to get attention, to get help. The colour orange appears in dark moments, as in his room-insallation.
According to the World Migration Report 2020, published on the website of IOM, the number of migrants in the world has reached 272.000.000 humans. Are these 272.000.000 people humans or jus concrete, heavy to deal with?
Zaid Saad is a visual artis. He is talking in his art about migration. “CONCRETE o” is part of his series of concrete sculptures. The letter ‘o’ in his title “CONCRETE o” refers to the form of a life ring: ‘o’.
CONCRETE o Zaid Saad
Anxiety is a feeling of fear, dread and uneasiness, that can be a result of a childhood experience. Atef Al Jafal is a graphic designer and committed to conceptual art since 2018. Since 2020, he devoted himself to performances that are dealing with specifc psychological conditions Iraqi people are sufering from. Born in 2003 he is addressing in his performance “CHILDHOOD ANXIETY” especially the feelings of fear, dread and uneasiness from the 2000 generation of Iraqi young people. Their memories are on chains, like his body is on chains during the performance. Dimmed light underlines the condition of feeling uneasiness. The performance sarts with the birth, the innocence sage. During the journey of growing up there might be an experience, that psychologically efect you and you might think about suicide, the moment in the middle of the performance. It ends with the satus of falling to sleep, the sart of a new beginning. Each single element and movement in the performance is very much connected to the energy of the people who will enter his circle. He reacts to the person, to give her or him the feeling not to be alone and vice versa.
CHILDHOOD ANXIETY
Atef Al Jafal
The visual artis Hussam Mohammed is building large-scale iron sculptures since 2019. “WAITING” is dedicated to his father, who passed away beginning of the year. He is scrutinising with his sculpt the long adminisrative process a patient and its family has to go through before a medical treatment can sart. The material iron sands for endurance and patience they have to have. The form of a circle symbolizes the cyclic movement of repetition and the long process. The ornaments of the palms sand for the Minisry of health. The crown in form of a silver ball represent the Miniser of health, who has to sign before a treatment can sart. The hanging medicine bottles mirror the fnal satus of taking the treatment, but maybe the treatment comes too late, like in the case of his father.
“SPOT” is a room flled with sand taken from the river bench of the Tigris nearby. Muhaned Taha is devoted to environmental art. Sand for him is the expression of res. He found the river bench unexploited, a beautiful place with harmonic weather. The river bench which was once in 2019 used by young people as a beach and a place for leisure time activities is nowadays a place where the sand is exploited and used for commercial doings. Therefore, he transformed a room into a natural place for res full of sands. A specifc light provides the coherent weather he wants to have in terms of color, air, time and place. He created a space to interact with sand and res.
SPOT
Muhaned
“1000 STORIES AND A STORY” is a photo series by Hussain Muttar comparing architectural cityscape and sights in Baghdad as a contrasing juxtaposition of the pas and today. He selects one photo from the pas and take the same photo with the same angel and perspective of today. The frs edition of the series was published as a book in 2018. In this year’s fesival, he presents an extension of his photo series showing changes in Alawi Square, Al Koshla Street, Al Rasheed Street, Al Khilani Square, Al Tahrir Square and Al Kahramane Square. Each of the six photo pairs are presented with a description giving background information.
Sarhand Khaled is from Suleymaniya and sudies architecture. He presents an animation video showing a modeled city from the viewpoint of him as an architect to our cities. He shows how the city and its architecture has los connection with humans. The title “GROWN UP VILLAGES” refers to the fact, that cities in Iraq have not been planned as urbans. He takes us on a tour through his imaginary city which reminds you on a futurisic space city in the middle of a desert.
He describes: “Our cities, hold our memories. We take our memories into the sreets, into the small routes. But, what if our cities are jus grown-up villages, with no image of a city? Where you can not relate yourself to the homes, sreets and land. Where all you can see are buildings with duss, the dus of hisory, the dus of mind. Too much dus that maybe only another food will clean the city.”
GROWN UP VILLAGES
Sarhand Khaled
“What is eating you from the inside, which infect your soul and mind with disease? Is it time to liberate and heal? Or, will you remain submissive?” Hajer Qusay
Hajer Qusay is a flmmaker who is experimenting with performance and insallation since 2020. Her topics are women in Iraq from a very personal perspective as she is one of the women. “DISEASE” is a scenography showing diferent elements of sufering. As an uncovered pretty lady, she is consantly exposed to criticism and insults. The foating ball with the long falling veil in the center of the scenography embodies a woman. The woman is surrounded by hanging objects, symbolizing the perception of women. The medical bottles sand for the community and are flled with a green liquid. In cinema, the colour green is used to express disease. Therefore, she uses the colour green to underline how the community treats women. Insead of giving help, they do the contrary. Her scenography is anything but a reproach, it is a gentle, positive reques for a diferent approach.
DISEASE
Hajer Qusay
“How it can be so diferent to be there? How it can that painful? Or maybe we are always there without knowing this main fact?” Aishe
LIFE & DEAD is a hanging double-sided sculptural design object with tower-like square buildings made out of transparent and black acrylic glass. Her cognitive sculpture is a ques to undersand the nature of consciousness and unconsciousness and why people’s perception of reality is not necessarily what it seems. Aishe is sudying architecture and therefore, buildings are her human beings. The upper transparent side expresses the satus that we think what we see is reality, but perhaps it is not. The lower dark side is the part what we currently do not see, but perhaps we will see it later.
The visual artis Zeena Kareem embodies the spirit of her mother. She presents the dress of her mother that she wore mos of the time and in which she passed away in the age of 45 years. Floating freely in the room the dress became the soul of her mum. A video is projected onto the dress showing Zeena in the clothes of her mum walking through the sreets of Baghdad like her mum is sill alive. Diyar Ziyad composed the musical soul spirit of Zeena’s mum.
Noor Abd Ali paints surreal fgures, objects and landscapes. Her painting “QUESTIONING A QUESTION” shows her in the middle of Sinek neighbourhood. It is a men-dominated environment, with small shops ofering car replacements and tools, with many day-workers, ordinary people. She had to pass this area every day because of her work in the Iraqi Independent Film Centre. Every day she got faced by men she does not know with the quesion in a rude tone: “Why are you here?”.
She is of a reserve and polite nature, who does not harm anybody and anything. We see her in the centre of the painting appearing in purple colour. In its origins, the color purple sood for humility, virtue and penance. For her the colour purple is an expression for her innocent. The surrounded objects symbolize the men who are asking her a quesion. They appear in the colour of red to underline the aggressivity of the quesion: “What is a woman doing in an area full of men?”. Noor Abd Ali is quesioning a quesion.
QUESTIONING A QUESTION
Noor
The young architect Amir Akram takes the visitors on an imaginary journey through his galaxy via virtual reality. He got inspired by poetry about cosmic and our relationship with the universe. Visitors can teleport within 10 scenes. We sart in a normal garden, pass the tunnel to reach the space universe, we cross the explosion room and meet his spiritual animal the elk, we walk between moving cubes to reach the platform with the fgure of Arisotle. You see Arisotle’s hands touching each other and you fnd out that this might be god and it is maybe a refection of you. Visitors loved to enjoy the journey by themselves because virtual reality can teleport you into another world without leaving your current place. While going around in Amir’s garden you always discover something new.
“It is a miracle that Galileo never found you. If he did he would say the universe revolved around you.” says one part of the poem he got inspired.
COSMIC GARDEN
Jumana Ridha’s room is a refection of specifc moments in her life. In fve paintings, she expresses satuses of her inner self and the hands who helped her to go through each single sage. The main painting shows her in her childhood wearing a blazer, which was given from siser to siser. Jumana was a very anxious child, always afraid from people. The hands of her sisers Marina and Chrisina were giving her hold.
The painting opposite describes the moment, when both sisers went diferent ways and left her alone. It shows two versions of her hands, expressing two personalities, one is scared and lonely and one has to fnd ways to survive. The third painting with fowers under her eyes is her breaking point. She realized that her fear of people comes from her capability for empathy and she accepted the fact even though it is hard to deal with the fact to feel and read people without that they are saying words.
After the breaking point the hands of her siser Fathma gave her sability in life which is expressed in the fourth painting. The las painting is devoted to her mum. We see a visualisation of Jumana’s memory which she does not want to forget: the hands of her mum, giving her a fower. The background is black. Her mum was all her life wearing black, because of the loss of the people around her. The fower on the hands is both, a gesure and a mission. Her mother is giving everything what she can give to Jumana and her other children.
REFLECTION
Jumana Ridha
Furqan Mohammed is sudying architecture and she love to express herself through painting. Art for her is a gift and it makes her feel euphoric, happy and excited. Art for her is a catalys for expression. She tends to suck thinking about the same issue over and over again but is not coming to any sort of solution. To get rid of this overthinking process she decided to paint. Our brain gives us the ability to think. Her brain appears in a cubic form and she is sitting in black in front of her dark brain room. The big eye expresses the satus of when she sees life in one way only. The brightly coloured waves coming out of her brain express her desire to see the whole life, to overcome the unproductive way of thinking. Pearls and traditional Iraqi lucky charms inspire her and are always found in her paintings.
OVERTHINKING
Furqan Mohammed
“In all the wars that are taking place, the ignorant enemy is always very wary of the intellectuals and tries to get rid of them in various ways, knowing that the intellectuals have no weapons except the mind. And the front that is armed with the mind will defnitely win...” Diyar Ziyad
Diyar Ziyad is a young musician and became interesed in conceptual art because of his father Ziyad Jassam. He chose for his sound-insallation a desroyed room facing the river Tigris and Al Jumhuriya Bridge. Even though very young, he realized the misundersanding, misuse and “ignorance” towards educated people. He likes to talk about art and culture in Iraq and he wants to point out the signifcance of its preservation. At the same time, he sees the battle what intellectuals in his country are facing. Music insruments and books are tools, like weapons are. He is convinced that the right tool will win. His music is the sound of bombs and sadness, the sound of war. We hear a piano without tuning and music without rhythm. He sprayed his title, his message on the wall, like ISIS members put their logo on the walls of homes or Iraqi people, homes they occupied. “The front that is armed with the mind will defnitely win.” He says.
WHEN INTELLECTUALS FACE IGNORANCE
Diyar Ziyad
There is an anecdote about Stalin, that he once gave a lesson to his advisors. He is reputed to pluck out the feathers of a life chicken. After he released the completely plucked chicken, the chicken came back to him. He moved around the room putting some barley and the chicken was following him. Stalin said: “Have you seen how that chicken followed me despite the pain I caused it?”
There are people who follow their exploiters, killers and thieves, no matter how excessively they torture them, and they may sanctify them for their crimes in exchange for crumbs, and often they may not even fnd those crumbs, but they are following.
KNEELING
Loay Al Hadhary
Lwaa Alsahnee is sudying architecture and is passionate to photography.
His photo-series “RED2O” show 10 photographs of normal sreet life scenes, life scenes where we see the colour red isolated from the res of the colours of life. Red has a range of symbolic meanings throughout diferent cultures and it awakes in us specifc feelings. For Lwaa, the colour red is as important as water is. “We cannot continue to live without water as we cannot without the colour red.” He said. Therefore, he chose his title “RED2O” from the sign of the chemical compound of water “H2O”.
He was curious to know the feelings of visitors in regard to the colour, if red is isolated from the other colours of life. He asked: “Love, anger, excitement, srength, pride, danger, daring, warmth, etc. They are all feelings that humans experience when they see the colour red - mixed with the colours of life. But, humanity was not accusomed to seeing it alone, so what did you feel?” The majority of the visitors chose three feelings: love, daring and warmth.
RED2O Lwaa Alsahnee
Imprint
This booklet is published on the occasion on 8. TARKIB Baghdad Contemporary Arts Festival which took place in the Iraqi Artists Syndicate from October 6 to 9, 2022.
The 8. edition of the festival was kindly supported by the Embassy of France Baghdad, the French Institute Baghdad and Culture of Resistance.
Design and Layout: ART TC (Hella Mewis, Atef Al Jafal)
Text: Hella Mewis
Photos: Hella Mewis and Mounir Salah
© 2022 TARKIB Organization for Arts and Culture
All rights reserved.
www.tarkib.net
www.tarkibt.net
