http://www.menafn.com/qn_news_story_s.asp?StoryId=60996
The DailyStar - 20/08/2004
"We cannot experience a cultural product if we don't understand the forces that affect its practice," says Mohammed Abdullah, a 39-year-old artist and curator who was born in Iraq and is now based in the Netherlands. "Over the past three decades - an era marked by political upheaval, dictatorship, war, embargo, and exile - Iraqi intellectuals have had to practice (a) culture of necessity and survival."
Abdullah, who studied sculpture at the Fine Arts Academy in Baghdad before pursuing fashion and textile design at different schools in Barcelona, Milan, and Amsterdam, has spent most of his adult life creating artworks of his own. He has staged performances such as "Who's Afraid of Mohammed?" and "Still Life in Baghdad" in Maastricht and he has participated in such events as the International Cairo Biennial and the Painting Biennial of the Islamic World in Tehran.
Abdullah has always organized the presentation of his work as a solo effort, but over the past two years, he has stepped out of the world of his own art and into the shoes of a proper curator, facilitating a major group show devoted to Iraqi artists living at home and abroad.
"In-Betweenity," as the project is called, was launched earlier this summer - literally in cyberspace, as a bilingual website that will eventually develop into a concrete exhibition at the Witte de With, a contemporary art center in Rotterdam, in 2005. The title indicates "a hypothetical terrain," a space in between. According to Abdullah, the Arabic term baen baen emerged as "a diagnosis of Iraqi intellectuals' status in homeland and exile."
There are plans to the bring the exhibition - which will include visual art, architecture, film, poetry, music and more - to additional institutions in Europe, though nothing has yet been determined. In the meantime, Abdullah is seeking out proposals from contemporary Iraqi artists, wherever they may be, to present their work on the site (www.in-betweenity.com) as a sort of cultural dialogue and artistic exchange. The applications and "self-presentation" forms are available online, and Abdullah is drawing on his own network of contacts to publicize the project.
In addition to the online material, print posters and forms and specially designed calling cards are currently in the works. The closing date for submissions is September 30. A selection of applicants will be chosen to present finished and ongoing projects in the exhibition, and seven more will be invited to Rotterdam to live and work for a fixed period of time. The emphasis of this project lies on the process of making work more so than on any final product, which is why Abdullah refers to it as a "work program."
"We are dealing with a very complicated and sensitive issue in very crucial circumstances," he says. "The work program is a series of possible scenarios. It is a flexible structure and a continuously evolving organism." The project has been set-up in such a way as to welcome a wide range of artistic expressions - in terms of form and content - and to absorb the potential shock of drastic changes on the ground in Iraq. "The structure is able to respond to the new complexity brought out by the American and British occupation," says Abdullah. "It should develop along with this reality as well."
If "In-Betweenity," as Abdullah explains, "occupies a place between theory and practice," and if is an attempt to "transform the Iraqi cultural climate into a form of practice," then the project also raises some interesting questions. What is the role of culture in rebuilding a country wracked by war? How can artistic and intellectual activity be resurrected, restored and maintained? And what, more basically, is the feasibility of promoting these artistic exchanges online, especially when they are based around the idea of a country where access to information technology and the internet has been historically scattershot?
In 1999, the New York-based non-profit group Human Rights Watch published a report on internet access in the Middle East, stating that "Iraq is the only country in West Asia that has no internet connection at all."
From within Iraq, officials at the time suggested (rather typically) that it wasn't their fault - the country's telecommunications infrastructure had been badly damaged during the Gulf War, and the imposition of economic sanctions had further aggravated the situation by denying people the means to replace broken parts.
From without, observers, advisors, and humanitarian workers in the West wrung their hands with worry (also typically). After opining that unfettered access to information on the internet would promote freedom and democracy, they speculated in lamenting tones that Saddam Hussein would do whatever it took to crack down on his people, not least by denying them an open and uncensored connection to the world.
For all the devastation that has been heaped on the Iraqi population in the years since that report was issued, one condition of daily life has improved. By all accounts, internet access is now widespread and commonplace. Over the past year in particular, internet cafes have sprouted up all over Baghdad. Iraqi bloggers have proven to be among the most prodigious in the world. (The most famous of these blog spots, by a young Iraqi architect and translator writing under the pseudonym Salam Pax, was published in book form by Grove Press a year ago in October.)
In between the network of access provided by internet cafes and the private practice of blogging, a number of ambitious and far-reaching web-based projects have cropped up, all committed to connecting Iraqis and to establishing forums for expression.
The Iraqi Information Network (www.iraq.net) appeared in 1997 to provide access to information and the freedom to choose. Seven years later, the site, by a group of Iraqi exiles is still going, offering a steady flow of news and links to 42 Arabic papers throughout the region.
The Baghdad Bulletin (www.baghdadbulletin.com) was a newsmagazine that a pair of young foreign journalists started a few months after the war in Iraq began. The print edition stopped publishing when the money ran out last September, but there were plans to keep the online edition up and running, to serve mainly as a sounding board for foreigners and professionals trying to navigate the rather hectic working conditions within the country. Nothing more has been added to the site since, but the archives remain an interesting document of a particularly chaotic time.
Also serving an archival function, the International Network for Contemporary Iraqi Artists (INCIA), grew out of the project "Strokes of Genius: Contemporary Iraqi Art." Both a touring museum exhibition and a book published by Saqi in London, "Strokes of Genius" gathered and exposed the talent of an entire generation of artists working on such issues as identity and exile, trauma and war. INCIA, (www.incia.co.uk) is now attempting to build a database of information on Iraqi artists (both past and present) to serve as a resource for students, critics, and curators and to provide preliminary research for a comprehensive "Dictionary of Contemporary Iraqi Art and Artists."
In emphasizing practice and in acknowledging pragmatic, logistical concerns, "In-Betweenity" takes the idea of a website devoted to contemporary Iraqi art one step further. It's worth noting that "In-Betweenity" is the third stage in the ongoing "Contemporary Arab Representations" program, a long-term project initiated by curator Catherine David a few years ago. The first stage of David's sprawling assemblage of exhibitions, seminars, publications and presentations focused on Beirut and the second looked at Cairo. In the past, David has insisted that she is not taking a simple geographic tour of the region. Rather, Contemporary Arab Representations is meant to tackle conflicted situations, where the need to articulate and promote cultural production becomes urgent.
However it develops - as long as Iraq stays online and "In-Betweenity" manages to keep its participants connected - this project promises to delve into issues that get only scant attention in public discourses and media accounts. The artistic expressions that come out of it all won't necessarily be pretty, but surely, as Abdullah suggests, they will be necessary for anyone who really wants to begin to understand.
--
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The DailyStar - 20/08/2004
"We cannot experience a cultural product if we don't understand the forces that affect its practice," says Mohammed Abdullah, a 39-year-old artist and curator who was born in Iraq and is now based in the Netherlands. "Over the past three decades - an era marked by political upheaval, dictatorship, war, embargo, and exile - Iraqi intellectuals have had to practice (a) culture of necessity and survival."
Abdullah, who studied sculpture at the Fine Arts Academy in Baghdad before pursuing fashion and textile design at different schools in Barcelona, Milan, and Amsterdam, has spent most of his adult life creating artworks of his own. He has staged performances such as "Who's Afraid of Mohammed?" and "Still Life in Baghdad" in Maastricht and he has participated in such events as the International Cairo Biennial and the Painting Biennial of the Islamic World in Tehran.
Abdullah has always organized the presentation of his work as a solo effort, but over the past two years, he has stepped out of the world of his own art and into the shoes of a proper curator, facilitating a major group show devoted to Iraqi artists living at home and abroad.
"In-Betweenity," as the project is called, was launched earlier this summer - literally in cyberspace, as a bilingual website that will eventually develop into a concrete exhibition at the Witte de With, a contemporary art center in Rotterdam, in 2005. The title indicates "a hypothetical terrain," a space in between. According to Abdullah, the Arabic term baen baen emerged as "a diagnosis of Iraqi intellectuals' status in homeland and exile."
There are plans to the bring the exhibition - which will include visual art, architecture, film, poetry, music and more - to additional institutions in Europe, though nothing has yet been determined. In the meantime, Abdullah is seeking out proposals from contemporary Iraqi artists, wherever they may be, to present their work on the site (www.in-betweenity.com) as a sort of cultural dialogue and artistic exchange. The applications and "self-presentation" forms are available online, and Abdullah is drawing on his own network of contacts to publicize the project.
In addition to the online material, print posters and forms and specially designed calling cards are currently in the works. The closing date for submissions is September 30. A selection of applicants will be chosen to present finished and ongoing projects in the exhibition, and seven more will be invited to Rotterdam to live and work for a fixed period of time. The emphasis of this project lies on the process of making work more so than on any final product, which is why Abdullah refers to it as a "work program."
"We are dealing with a very complicated and sensitive issue in very crucial circumstances," he says. "The work program is a series of possible scenarios. It is a flexible structure and a continuously evolving organism." The project has been set-up in such a way as to welcome a wide range of artistic expressions - in terms of form and content - and to absorb the potential shock of drastic changes on the ground in Iraq. "The structure is able to respond to the new complexity brought out by the American and British occupation," says Abdullah. "It should develop along with this reality as well."
If "In-Betweenity," as Abdullah explains, "occupies a place between theory and practice," and if is an attempt to "transform the Iraqi cultural climate into a form of practice," then the project also raises some interesting questions. What is the role of culture in rebuilding a country wracked by war? How can artistic and intellectual activity be resurrected, restored and maintained? And what, more basically, is the feasibility of promoting these artistic exchanges online, especially when they are based around the idea of a country where access to information technology and the internet has been historically scattershot?
In 1999, the New York-based non-profit group Human Rights Watch published a report on internet access in the Middle East, stating that "Iraq is the only country in West Asia that has no internet connection at all."
From within Iraq, officials at the time suggested (rather typically) that it wasn't their fault - the country's telecommunications infrastructure had been badly damaged during the Gulf War, and the imposition of economic sanctions had further aggravated the situation by denying people the means to replace broken parts.
From without, observers, advisors, and humanitarian workers in the West wrung their hands with worry (also typically). After opining that unfettered access to information on the internet would promote freedom and democracy, they speculated in lamenting tones that Saddam Hussein would do whatever it took to crack down on his people, not least by denying them an open and uncensored connection to the world.
For all the devastation that has been heaped on the Iraqi population in the years since that report was issued, one condition of daily life has improved. By all accounts, internet access is now widespread and commonplace. Over the past year in particular, internet cafes have sprouted up all over Baghdad. Iraqi bloggers have proven to be among the most prodigious in the world. (The most famous of these blog spots, by a young Iraqi architect and translator writing under the pseudonym Salam Pax, was published in book form by Grove Press a year ago in October.)
In between the network of access provided by internet cafes and the private practice of blogging, a number of ambitious and far-reaching web-based projects have cropped up, all committed to connecting Iraqis and to establishing forums for expression.
The Iraqi Information Network (www.iraq.net) appeared in 1997 to provide access to information and the freedom to choose. Seven years later, the site, by a group of Iraqi exiles is still going, offering a steady flow of news and links to 42 Arabic papers throughout the region.
The Baghdad Bulletin (www.baghdadbulletin.com) was a newsmagazine that a pair of young foreign journalists started a few months after the war in Iraq began. The print edition stopped publishing when the money ran out last September, but there were plans to keep the online edition up and running, to serve mainly as a sounding board for foreigners and professionals trying to navigate the rather hectic working conditions within the country. Nothing more has been added to the site since, but the archives remain an interesting document of a particularly chaotic time.
Also serving an archival function, the International Network for Contemporary Iraqi Artists (INCIA), grew out of the project "Strokes of Genius: Contemporary Iraqi Art." Both a touring museum exhibition and a book published by Saqi in London, "Strokes of Genius" gathered and exposed the talent of an entire generation of artists working on such issues as identity and exile, trauma and war. INCIA, (www.incia.co.uk) is now attempting to build a database of information on Iraqi artists (both past and present) to serve as a resource for students, critics, and curators and to provide preliminary research for a comprehensive "Dictionary of Contemporary Iraqi Art and Artists."
In emphasizing practice and in acknowledging pragmatic, logistical concerns, "In-Betweenity" takes the idea of a website devoted to contemporary Iraqi art one step further. It's worth noting that "In-Betweenity" is the third stage in the ongoing "Contemporary Arab Representations" program, a long-term project initiated by curator Catherine David a few years ago. The first stage of David's sprawling assemblage of exhibitions, seminars, publications and presentations focused on Beirut and the second looked at Cairo. In the past, David has insisted that she is not taking a simple geographic tour of the region. Rather, Contemporary Arab Representations is meant to tackle conflicted situations, where the need to articulate and promote cultural production becomes urgent.
However it develops - as long as Iraq stays online and "In-Betweenity" manages to keep its participants connected - this project promises to delve into issues that get only scant attention in public discourses and media accounts. The artistic expressions that come out of it all won't necessarily be pretty, but surely, as Abdullah suggests, they will be necessary for anyone who really wants to begin to understand.
--
The Design-L list for art and architecture, since 1992...
To subscribe, send mailto:design-l-subscribe-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx.
To signoff, send mailto:design-l-unsubscribe-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx.
Visit archives: http://lists.psu.edu/archives/design-l.html
