Cheeman Ismaeel

Cheeman Ismaeel (b. 1966, Sulaymaniyah, Iraqi Kurdistan) is a painter who applies her decorative style not only to canvases but also to household objects, such as a television, a clock, an oil heater and a lunchbox. The proposition is refreshingly personal and unpretentious, blurring the line conventionally drawn between fine and decorative art. Her attempt to…
 

Ali Samiaa

Filmmaker Ali Samiaa (b. 1980, Baghdad, Iraq) will be presenting a new film, The Love of Butterflies, for the occasion of his participation in the pavilion. It tells a story in which dramatic tension is derived from a balance struck between marital infidelity and family commitment, between a firm moral stance and sympathy. Samiaa is part…
 

Hareth Alhomaam

Hareth Alhomaam (b. 1987, Baghdad, Iraq) will present a short film, Buzz, which exemplifies the stilted, mediated nature of communications between the sexes in modern Iraq in spite of the advent of social media. We follow the short story of a young man and a young woman as they navigate daily life in Baghdad with family…
 

Akeel Khreef

Taking Iraq’s lack of ecological awareness in his sights, Akeel Khreef’s (b. 1979, Baghdad, Iraq) sculptural pieces are made out of material taken from discarded objects. Bits and pieces of a broken generator and an old bicycle, for example, are used to make chairs, in gestures of recycling that touch on an urgent need for raised…