Twelfth Berlin Biennale For Contemporary Art, 2022
With Sajjad Abbas, Layth Kareem, and Raed Mutar
For the 12th Berlin Biennale, I advised on curatorial works, contributed texts for several exhibiting artists (Sajjad Abbas and Raed Mutar), and served as a conversant for the public program with artist Layth Kareem. Due to the discovery upon arrival at the biennale that the only Iraqi artists’ works in the biennale were hung in relation to images of Iraqis raped and tortured at Abu Ghraib, myself and the three participating artists above (Sajjad Abbas, Raed Mutar, and Layth Kareem), withdrew from the Biennale. These reasons were detailed in a statement published in Artforum, and subsequently signed by over 500 artists.
The texts and images of the artists’ works are below, as well as the
statement and further reading.
Raed Mutar
Layth Kareem
Sajjad Abbas
Beyond Repair: Regarding Torture at the Berlin Biennale, Artforum, July 29, 2022
Art and the Limits of Awareness Politics, Art Review, November 11, 2022
Everyone Told Me I Would Love Berlin, Parapraxis, Issue 02
Controversy and Colonialism: A Survey of German Exhibitions from Berlin to Munich,PIN-UP, 2023
Iraqi Artists Withdraw from Berlin Biennale in Protest of Installation with Blown-Up Abu Ghraib Photographs, Art News, August 16, 2022
Raed Mutar, UNTITLED, 2012, oil on canvas, 150 × 120 cm, courtesy Rijin Sahakian © Raed Mutar, photo: Eric TschernowLayth Kareem, THE CITY LIMITS, 2014, video, color and b/w, sound, 10′43′′, video still © Layth KareemSajjad Abbas, I CAN SEE YOU, 2013, video, color, sound, 5′03′′, b/w image in public space, video still © Sajjad Abbas