The Iraq War and the (im)possibility of memorials
NaJa & deOstos, The Hanging Cemetery of Baghdad, 2008
In a recent article published on the Foreign Policy in Focus website, Provisions’ associate John Feffer writes about a compelling political project initiated by artist Joseph DeLappe. Iraqimemorial.org is an online exhibition and call for participation to propose concepts for memorials to the thousands of Iraqi civilians killed in the War. DeLappe has invited artists, architects and designers to submit their projects to a website, where they will be judged by jurors and the general public. The website itself will then be a virtual monument to the 81,632-1,120,000 civilians who have died. Reflecting on various issues that block the actual realization of monuments, Feffer writes: “In a world increasingly dominated by Facebook, Google and YouTube, such a virtual monument may well have as much longevity as anything made of concrete or granite.”
The diversity of approaches is remarkable:
* A three-panel painting of an aerial attack on civilians in homage to Diego Rivera.
* A representation of a wall destroyed by a bomb attack.
* A billboard proclaiming This War Is Unjust.
* A thin copper strip that encircles Baghdad.
* Photographs of a model in various locations wearing a T-shirt saying Kiss Me I’m Iraqi on one side and Kill Me I’m Iraqi on the other.
* Test of tubes of blood substituting for the profits of major oil companies as represented in a bar graph.
* A garden in the shape of Iraq.
Here for the online exhibition.
Here for the article.
Sam Durant, Proposal for Iraq War Memorial, Symbolic Transposition of effects of war in Iraq to the U.S. and England: 10 Downing St., Parliament, U.S. Capitol and the White House [detail], 2007
The ICA in London did a similar project last year when they invited 26 artists from around the world and used the exhibition medium as a backdrop for proposed memorials to the War. The memorials addressed topics such as the invasion and occupation of Iraq, the country’s slide into civil war, the deaths of soldiers and civilians, and the conflict’s relation to global jihadism and the War on Terror. The exhibition was self-critical, in the sense that it recognized the impossibility of finding a definitive memorial. It explored different views of the Iraq War and questioned what can or should be memorialized in the context of an ongoing conflict.
Here for an article on the ICA show, Memorial to the Iraq War.
