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 Tschernow
Layth Kareem, THE CITY LIMITS, 2014, video, color and b/w, sound, 10′43′′, video still © Layth Kareem
Sajjad Abbas, I CAN SEE YOU, 2013, video, color, sound, 5′03′′, b/w image in public space, video still © Sajjad Abbas