CULTURE-IRAQ: Defying Misery caused by the UN Embargo
IGC News Desk
Worldwide distribution via the APC networks.
*** 19-Jan-0* ***
Title: CULTURE-IRAQ: Defying Misery caused by the UN Embargo
By Kim Ghattas
BAGHDAD, Jan 19 (IPS) - The first image the word Iraq brings to
mind today is that of a country under embargo, of Iraqis selling
their belongings for medication and children dying by the
thousands.
But amidst the misery, the sadness and bitterness of what Iraq
has become after 10 years of embargo, there is a peculiar ray of
light and hope in the streets of Baghdad: Art.
Driving around Baghdad, art galleries seem to be everywhere.
Although Iraq has always had a tradition for art, the embargo
seems to have catalysed creation and from two galleries before the
embargo, Baghdad now boasts 25.
They are a reminder of what Iraq was before the UN-imposed
sanctions, which came right after Iraq's invasion of Kuwait. This
is where old Mesopotamia lay, where one of the seven wonders of
the world, the gardens of Babylon, was located. The 'cradle of
civilizations', as it is often called, was home to the Sumerians,
the Assyrians and others.
It is this rich history that has been inherited by Iraq's
contemporary artists, who are today striving to maintain their art
under the embargo.
"Before the embargo, artists painted for the sake of art. They
produced maybe 3 to 4 paintings a year and often chose not sell
them," says Ghayath el Jazairi, director of the Inaa' art gallery
on Abu Nawwas street. Al Inaa' opened in 1995.
"Now artists can produce up to 20 paintings a year because they
have to support their families. But the quality has not diminished
to the expense of quantity. On the contrary, it has given them
more experience, they are experimenting with different techniques
and styles," he adds.
What has diminished is the material needed for the artists'
works, prices have doubled sometimes tripled and quality has
diminished greatly. But Jazairi says there is a lot of solidarity
between the artists since the embargo.
"Some artists had reserves of paint, so when the embargo came,
for example, they traded their red oil paint for a big canvas,
because paint doesn't keep well too long anyway," he says.
The harsh conditions of creation are enhanced by the knowledge
that until 1990, Iraqi artists, painters and others, had a special
place in Iraqi society and art was always highly encouraged by the
state. Until now, Iraqi artists are well known around the world
and are thought to be the best in the Arab world.
Before the embargo, artists were provided with material free of
charge with no conditions put on their work. One Western diplomat
described Iraqi president Saddam Hussein, now blamed for the state
his country is in, as a visionary despot.
In the 30's when the Iraqi monarchy was put in place, artists
were sent to study in Europe. They are now regarded as the
pioneers of Iraqi art. Every generation of artists has its style,
and that of the embargo generation is observed with great interest
and admiration.
"I am impressed, moved by their creation," says Francis Dubois,
the UN Development Programme (UNDP) resident representative in
Baghdad, who is an admirer of Iraqi art.
"They have no paper, no pens, no colours, they suffer, and
still they create and it's really good. Comfort is the enemy of
art and creation, it's difficult living conditions that create
art, desperate people want to hold on to something, some choose
religion but here a lot have chosen art," he adds.
For Samira Abdel Wahab, a renowned artist who started in the
mid 80's, the embargo has made artists even keener to defy the
difficult conditions and make art triumph over the embargo.
"Suffering gives me the power to create, it's inspiration, joy
doesn't, it's too superficial," she says. Abdel Wahab lost two of
her sons in the mid 90's, and says that, unfortunately, this is
what made her a real artist.
Iraqi paintings are very modern most of the time, somewhere
between abstract and figurative. The colours vary, from very dark
browns and blacks to bright blues and reds. Interestingly enough,
there is very rarely a direct representation of Iraq's present
situation and government propaganda is absent from arts exhibited
at privately owned galleries.
"Artists have their own way of expressing their sadness. Bright
red in my paintings is a symbol of the intense internal hemorrhage
I felt in my heart when my sons died. Blue is the sadness, the
blues of the embargo," says Abdel Wahab.
Surprisingly one can even see naked bodies, something
unthinkable in neighbouring countries. Iraq is a relatively
secular state, especially compared to countries like Saudi Arabia
and Iran. In Islam, representation of the face or human bodies is
forbidden, restraining artists in some ways.
Nonetheless, the conditions of creation are not easy for the
Iraqi artists, living in a country where standards of living have
dropped precipitously since 1990, the protein intake has decreased
by half and 500,000 children under five have died in ten years.
Not all the artists that sell their paintings are good, some
just hope they will be able to sell their painting anyway to feed
their children. Some of the galleries take in all artists, more
concerned with the possibility of gain than real art.
And unfortunately, while Iraqis were big art buyers before the
embargo and Baghdad had its own equivalent of London's Christies,
today most buyers of Iraqi art are the few foreigners, Arab and
Westerners, who find their way into embargoed Iraq. There are, of
course, also dozens of exiled Iraqi artists scattered around the
world who enjoy better conditions and are just as renowned.
At one of the recently opened galleries, which also has a caf‚
where artists meet, a group of women are sitting, chatting and
sipping hot tea from glass cups. They are sad about the crumbling
of their country and miss the good old days of care free living.
"We use to worry about existential questions, life, death,
human nature," says artist Mezgen Aziz, of Kurdish origins from
northern Iraq. "Now all we think about is food, clothes,
survival."(END/IPS/MM/CR/kg/mn/01)
Origin: HREAIPS/CULTURE-IRAQ/
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[c] 2001, InterPress Third World News Agency (IPS)
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