English

Interview

Reconstructing the things around us: Afifa Aleiby on the role of the artist in society

Afifa Aleiby (born 1952, Basra) grew up in a family devoted to culture and the arts where she painted from an early age. She studied at the Institute of Fine Arts in Baghdad and worked as an illustrator for the Iraqi press. In 1974, she left Iraq for the Soviet Union to study at the…

Cartoon

‘Art and Creativity’: January Cartoon Series by Khudair Alhimyari

For January, Ruya has commissioned a weekly cartoon series on Art and Creativity, by Baghdad-based caricaturist Khudair Alhimyari.

Interview

Plastic Women and Teahouses: interview with the artist Rozhgar Mustafa

Rozhgar Mustafa is a video and performance artist based in Sulaymaniya. After training as a painter at the Institute of Fine Arts and the University of Sulaymaniya, Mustafa soon began experimenting with video, performance and ready-made objects to make works about women and womanhood in Iraq. In 2011, Mustafa arranged for a group of protesters…

Interview

Family Trees and Pop Culture Rebels: director Samir on his documentary film Iraqi Odyssey.

On 2 December, the Ruya Foundation co-sponsored the Iraqi premiere of the award-winning documentary film Iraqi Odyssey (2014). The film traces the epic journey of the filmmaker Samir’s own family who left Iraq more than half a century ago, and are now scattered across the world. Samir (b.1955, Iraq) is a Swiss-Iraqi film director, writer and…