Military conflicts have been the interpreted by many artists. The first world war was the main cause of dadaist’s manifest, the Spanish civil war redirected Picasso and Magritte. The invasion of Iraq affected art world as well. (Jones, 2009)
Artist Jeremy Deller created a mobile museum of those incidents and travelled in US visiting 14 cities. The project was called Conversations about Iraq’:
Deller has invited journalists, soldiers and Iraqi refugees to talk about the last decade’s incidents. The aim of this project is to provoke conversation about our world.
A car destroyed in an suicide bomb attack on a book market in Al-Mutanabbi street, in the centre of Baghdad on March 5, 2007 was exhibited as ‘work’. Al-Mutanabbi street is a social and cultural centre in Baghdad, the attack can be simply interpreted as aggression toward culture itself.
The work shows the actual result of war: “You have to realise you’re not looking at a car – you’re looking at 35 dead people.” – says someone in one of the videos. As Deller says: “Some were shocked to hear one speaker support the invasion. But what we’re not doing is making an anti-war statement. We’re trying to present it as neutrally as we can.”
Jones J. (2009) The Guardian: How artist Jeremy Deller is bringing the Iraq war home to Americans [Available from: http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2009/apr/14/jeremy-deller-iraq-war-us]
It Is What It Is: Conversations about Iraq, A Project by Jeremy Deller, [Available from: http://www.conversationsaboutiraq.com/interviews.php#esam]
ola knopek 