September 2, 2013 Welcome To Iraq Catalogue

The Welcome to Iraq catalogue with texts by curator Jonathan Watkins and RUYA chairman Tamara Chalabi is available to purchase online through the Ikon Gallery. It is illustrated with images of selected work and recent photographs of everyday life in Baghdad, Babylon, Basra, Erbil and Sulaimaniya.

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Interview 

Mermaids, Myths and Women Who Collect Salt: Interview with the artist Dhikra Sarsam

Dhikra Sarsam (b. Baghdad 1965) is a documentary film-maker and children’s illustrator. Her colourful collages and children’s illustrations recount local and religious tales, famous poems, fairy tales and the Arabian Nights.  She has worked on a number of documentaries, including Rahma Zainab and others, about under-age marriage in Iraq and is an active member of…
Event 

RUYA holds symposium in Baghdad on contemporary art.

RUYA hosted a day long symposium on contemporary art in Baghdad last week, open to artists and intellectuals from across the country. Curator Philippe Van Cauteren, who RUYA brought to Baghdad to meet artists and visit the city’s cultural institutions, gave a presentation on the current international state of contemporary art. ‘We took advantage of…
Exhibition 

Baghdad City of Peace Carnival – World Peace Day

To celebrate the UN’s World Peace Day, the non-governmental organisation IQ Peace hosted the Baghdad City of Peace Festival on 21 September. The term Madinat al Salam, or “City of Peace” may seem unusual for Baghdad, but this was the city’s name in the Abbasid times. This year, the annual event was bigger than ever,…
 

Foreign Policy’s Global Thinkers of 2013

Ruya Chairwoman Tamara Chalabi and Ikon Director Jonathan Watkins have been named two of Foreign Policy’s Global Thinkers of 2013. The issue is now available at newsstands and an interactive, digital edition of this year’s Global Thinkers list will be available online soon.
 

Baghdad Night: Ruya Foundation at the Dubai International Film Festival

Baghdad Night is an animated film based on an old Iraqi folk tale. As you can see from the trailer, it captures the urban feel of the city, and the magical world of folklore. It will be screened for the first time at the Dubai International Film Festival (6-14 Dec). The film was made by…
 

Jafar Mohamed in Venice: Old Masters and 55th Venice Biennale

We asked artist Jafar Mohamed to keep a diary of his residency at the Scuola Internazionale di Grafica in Venice. Below are his impressions on the city’s museums, paintings and the 55th Venice Biennale, which had been on since the summer: Since my arrival, I’ve loved walking through the city, and have been drawn to…
Interview 

From Berlin to Baghdad: Furat al Jamil

Furat al Jamil (b. 1965, Mainz, Germany; lives and works in Baghdad, Iraq) is a filmmaker, selected to show one of her rare sculptures at the Pavilion of Iraq. A suspended honeycomb frame drips its contents into a broken antique pot, in order to convey sweet melancholy, a sadness that she feels about her homeland…
Interview 

A time for change: Bassim al Shaker

One of the youngest artists in the Pavilion of Iraq at the 55th Venice Biennale, Bassim Al-Shaker (b. 1986, Baghdad, Iraq) is stylistically one of its most traditional, making oil paintings that would very much impress his teachers at the local academy. Eschewing any sign of avant-gardism he paints scenes of the southern marshlands, suggesting a lifestyle…
Interview 

The meaning of cardboard: WAMI (Yasseen Wami and Hashem Taeeh)

WAMI is an artistic partnership quite rare in Iraq. Yasseen Wami (b. 1973, Basra, Iraq) and Hashim Taeeh (b. 1948, Basra, Iraq) work together to make installations of furniture from new and used cardboard. The modest material and basic, minimalist style they prefer are entirely at odds with a popular taste in Iraq for gilded home furnishings.…