Irak | Wartist

Catalyst: Contemporary Art and War (Imperial War Museum North, Manchester)

From 12 October 2013 until 23 February 2014, the Imperial War Museum North in Manchester presents the exhibition “Catalyst: Contemporary Art and War”, containing works of more than 40 contemporary artists about war in our time. The IWM’s huge and diverse collection could provide all the more than 70 works that have been made sinde the Gulf War of 1990/91. Among others, Steve McQueen, Frauke Eigen, Paul Seawright, Rasheed Araeen and Willie Doherty take part in this exhibition.

© kennardphillipps, Photo Op, IWM ART 17541 (pigment print)

Wounds of the World – Magnum Photos (Osnabrück)

Sorry, this entry is only available in German.

Marissa Roth: One Person Crying – Women and War (Berlin)

Sara Duvall mit einem Foto ihres Sohnes Aaron Reed, getötet im Irak, Chillicothe, Ohio 2005 (© Marissa Roth)

From 8 March until 3 April 2013, Berlin-based Willy-Brandt-Haus presents the exhibition One Person Crying: Women and War with photos by Marissa Roth. Since 1984, the Pulitzer Prize laureate (born in 1957 in Los Angeles) is dealing with this issue: back then, she travelled to the Yugoslav homeland of her Jewish grandparents who had been murdered in 1942 by Hungarian Fascists. In 1988, she was assigned by Los Angeles Times to portray Afghan women refugees. The subject remained crucial for her work: One Person Crying: Women and War addresses the effects of war on women within their respective societies. Continue reading

Bryan Adams: Exposed (Dusseldorf)

Private Karl Hinett (© 2011 Bryan Adams)

From 2 February until 22 May 2013, NRW-Forum Düsseldorf presents the photo exhibition Exposed with works by Bryan Adams, mostly known as musician. Many of the some 150 prints shown are glamour portraits of actors and fellow musicians. As maximum disruption to all those immaculate stars, Adams’s portraits of British war invalids are shown, too: a new series of impressive portraits of humans marked by war. Protheses replace the former limbs, monstrous scars refer to pain and injuries. According to Adams, these pictures are his way “to show the legacy of war”.

Harun Farocki: Serious Games I-IV (Videoart at Midnight, Berlin)

On Friday 25 January 2013 at 2400h, the project Videoart at Midnight presents the four video installations Serious Games I-IV (2010) by the German documentary filmmaker and media artist Harun Farocki. Since some four years, the collector Ivo Wessel and the gallery owner Olaf Stüber present video art once a month at the cinema Kino Babylon in Berlin-Mitte. The four works by Farocki address training methods by the U.S. military and computer-based support of soldiers affected by post-traumatic stress disorder. Passing between war games, war simulations and real war seems to become increasingly fluent.

Wartist presents: “Peaceful Places” by Henning Kappenberg at ARD-Hauptstadtstudio, Berlin

We are pleased to announce our next exhibition at the both centrally located and well-visited ARD-Hauptstadtstudio in Berlin. The single show “Peaceful Places” of Berlin-based artist Henning Kappenberg circles around landscapes and maps: what do we see in landscapes, and what do we think we see? Maps, on the other hand, do always represent a political system. Curated by Martin Bayer, the exhibition will be opened on 17 January 2013.

o.T. (Guernica) © 2007 Henning Kappenberg (photo: © 2011 Martin Bayer)

Upper-Class Barbarians: Masquerades of Systemic Violence (ratskeller, Berlin)

From 8 November 2012 until 18 January 2013, ratskeller – Galerie für zeitgenössische Kunst (town hall cellar – gallery for contemporary art) in the basement of the town hall of Berlin-Lichtenberg presents the group show Barbaren der Oberschicht – Maskeraden systemischer Gewalt (Upper-Class Barbarians – Masquerades of Systemic Violence). An interesting contribution are Florian Göttke’s book and video installation “toppled”, addressing the countless statues of Saddam Husseins in Iraq: after Hussein was toppled, his statues shared the same fate. From symbols of his power, they became icons of his downfall, quite fitting to the dictator who at the end was pulled from a hole in the ground as dirty fugitive with a matted beard.

Schamal: Peace Bird (MHM Flugplatz Berlin-Gatow)

From 27 October 2012, Schamal – an artist originating from Iraq – presents his most recent Friedensvogel (peace bird) at Militärhistorisches Museum der Bundeswehr, Flugplatz Berlin-Gatow (German Air Force Museum, Berlin). As distant, but feasible vision, these peace birds are intended to take to his native country’s skies and “make the children marvel, pleased and question and inspire the adults to reflect on freedom and peace”.

Markus Georg Reintgen: “War – Fathers and Sons” (Anti-War Museum Berlin)

© Markus Georg Reintgen: Deutscher Panzer (C-Print, 81 x 54 cm, 2009)

Photo artist Markus Georg Reintgen is addressing war and violence in his work (see also the Wartist article about his series “Remember September”). The exhibition “Krieg – Väter und Söhne” (War – Fathers and Sons) at Anti-War Museum in Berlin (20 October 2012 to 6 January 2013) will show (digitally altered) photos on this subject. Continue reading

“The Prose of Events” Opened at ARD-Hauptstadtstudio, Berlin

Sorry, this entry is only available in German.