Spotlight

Event 

Watch the ‘Letters to My Father’ Film

Watch the film ‘Letters to My Father’ which shows behind the scenes footage of the Iraqi artist Salam Atta Sabri and introduces his latest publication with a conversation between Salam Atta Sabri, Tamara Chalabi and Philippe Van Cauteren. Salam Atta Sabri (b. 1953, Baghdad) is one of the most important Iraqi artists of his generation.…
Event 

Online Book Presentation ‘Salam Atta Sabri: Letters to My Father’

Follow the book presentation ‘Letters to My Father’ by the Iraqi artist Salam Atta Sabri online on 16th February 2021 at 8 pm (GMT+1). Salam Atta Sabri (b. 1953, Baghdad) is one of the most important Iraqi artists of his generation. He was raised in an artistic environment – his father Atta Sabri was also…

Projects

PROJECT 

Ruya Shop: A Contemporary Art Space and Library in Baghdad

The Ruya Foundation has opened a contemporary art library and projection space in Baghdad. The Ruya Shop is located on Mutanabbi Street, which is known for its weekly book market selling used and rare books. Every week, during the book market’s opening hours, the Ruya Shop will project a selection of video and photography by…
PROJECT 

Ruya Notebooks

Ruya Notebooks is a new educational publishing initiative. For each Notebook a well known artist, curator or critic will select texts that they have identified as fundamental to their creative development. These texts are then translated into Arabic, in most cases for the first time, and the resultant Notebook distributed for free to artistic communities in Iraq and…

Journal

Essay 

Themes of Fatherland #2: The Boat

Serwan Baran’s The Last General (2019), a new commission unveiled at the Iraq Pavilion at the Venice Biennale, depicts the corpse of an army general floating on a reed boat. As visitors enter the Pavilion’s first room they stumble on the clay and resin sculpture. The general’s body appears rested, but his head drops backwards,…
Essay 

Themes of Fatherland #1: The Witness

In a recent interview, the Iraqi-Kurdish Serwan Baran said of his new exhibition for the Iraq Pavilion at the 58th Venice Biennale: “I want viewers to be witnesses to the crime, to understand what it means to have lived a lifetime of conflict.” The artist’s new commission for the exhibition The Last Meal (2019) depicts…

Updates

Event 

Ruya Shop: Khudair Alhimyari’s ‘Chairs’

The Ruya Shop presents work by the Baghdad-based caricaturist Khudair Alhimyari. ‘Chairs’ is a cartoon series that explores politicians and their obsession to remain in power. An obsession that often comes at the cost of everything and everyone. ‘Chairs’ will be shown from 30 August to 12 October 2019, at the Ruya Shop, Mutannabi Street,…
Essay 

Themes of Fatherland #2: The Boat

Serwan Baran’s The Last General (2019), a new commission unveiled at the Iraq Pavilion at the Venice Biennale, depicts the corpse of an army general floating on a reed boat. As visitors enter the Pavilion’s first room they stumble on the clay and resin sculpture. The general’s body appears rested, but his head drops backwards,…
News 

Book launch: Fatherland, the Iraq Pavilion Catalogue

The Ruya Foundation has launched Fatherland, the catalogue for the Iraq Pavilion at the 58th Venice Biennale. The new publication includes an essay on the artist Serwan Baran by the art historian Natasha Gasparian and illustrations of Baran’s new commissions and preliminary sketches for the exhibition. As part of his research for the Fatherland exhibition, Baran collected…
Essay 

Themes of Fatherland #1: The Witness

In a recent interview, the Iraqi-Kurdish Serwan Baran said of his new exhibition for the Iraq Pavilion at the 58th Venice Biennale: “I want viewers to be witnesses to the crime, to understand what it means to have lived a lifetime of conflict.” The artist’s new commission for the exhibition The Last Meal (2019) depicts…