The David Winton Bell Gallery, Brown University will present a symposium entitled Art and War in Iraq on Friday, April 5, 2013 from 12:15-5:30pm in the List Art Center Auditorium. The symposium marks the opening of the gallery's spring exhibitions— the American premier of The Ashes Series by Iraqi-American artist Wafaa Bilal and I am Sorry It is Difficult to Start by American artist Daniel Heyman. An opening reception for the exhibitions will follow the symposium from 5:30 – 7:30 pm. In addition, a screening of Rory Kennedy’s documentary film entitled Ghosts of Abu Ghraib, will be held on April 18, at 5:30 pm in the List Art Center Auditorium.
About Art and War in Iraq
Ten years since the launch of Operation Iraqi Freedom and twenty-three years since the first Gulf War, the ramifications of the armed invasions and occupations of the Republic of Iraq by the United States continue to be felt by the Iraqi people as well as throughout the Middle East and the world. Amidst these fraught conflicts, artists have offered responses to the complexities of war and the challenges of its aftermath. The Art and War in Iraq symposium brings together American, Iraqi, and Middle Eastern artists, scholars, and critics to address the impacts of the wars in Iraq and the wider conflicts in the Middle East, with special attention to contemporary artistic practices in Iraq and its diaspora.
Videos of presentations
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Wafaa Bilal, Artist and Assistant Arts Professor, Photography, Tisch School of the Arts, New York University
Lecture: Making the Invisible Visible
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Daniel Heyman, Artist and Lecturer, Rhode Island School of Design, and Critic, Princeton University
Lecture: The Iraqi Portraits
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Meir Wigoder, School of Communication, Sapir College, Sderot and the Faculty of the Arts, Tel Aviv University
Lecture: The Intermediary-Spaces of Wafaa Bilal's The Ashes Series
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Susanne Slavick, Artist and Andrew W. Mellon Professor of Art, Carnegie Mellon University
Lecture: Out of Rubble
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Nada Shabout, Associate Professor of Art History and Director of Contemporary Arab and Muslim Cultural Studies Institute (CAMCSI), University of North Texas
Moderator for final panel discussion
Support for the Art and War in Iraq is provided by Brown University’s Woods Lectureship,Center for Middle Eastern Studies, Department of Modern Culture and Media, and Creative Arts Council