This was the first of three large exhibitions I curated in Gemak, The Hague, on the theme of ‘Borders’ (2007-2008).

One of the two wrecks I shipped in from Al Mutanabbi Street in Baghdad after the book market bombing there, in March 2007.

‘Green Zone / Red Zone’ dealt with the practice of creating divisions between groups of people by insisting on antagonistic traits between them. To most Baghdadis the distinctions between Sunni and Shiite, Arab and Kurd, religious and secular or nationalist and cosmopolitan were either not relevant, or not worth a fight. By designing a strategy for post-Saddam Iraq that was based on these distinctions, the USA greatly fanned the flames of inter-Iraqi conflict. The US policy makers themselves and their Iraqi protégés retreated into a safe Green Zone, connected to the rest of the world through an equally guarded airport and its own communication systems, while the increasingly fragmented ‘Red Zone’ outside became consumed by civil strife and was gradually cordoned off into ethnically and religiously defined neighbourhoods. These developments prompted Iraqi artists and thinkers to reflect about what was lost and why.

Participating artists:
Mohamed Abdulla

Mohamed Abdulla: Unattended Item. Intervention in the street in front of Gemak during opening of the exhibition, October 2007

Adel Abidin

Adel Abidin, Common Vocabularies (video, 2006). One of the many hand-outs accompanying the video installation

Marc Bijl

Installation view of Marc Bijl: “Triumph: Proposal for an Iraqi Memorial”: wood, cement, acrylic paint, 440 x 390 x 110 cm, 2007. Reproduction of original.

Wafaa Bilal

Wafaa Bilal: 4th of July Celebration, 2007. Single channel video, 25 min

Paul Chan

Paul Chan. Stills from video 'Baghdad in no Particular Order' made in Baghdad several months before the US invasion

Peter Kennard & Cat Picton Phillipps

Peter Kennard and Cat Picton Phillipps: Control Room, 2006. Pigmenting, oil, acrylic, charcoal, emulsion and paper on newspaper; 500 x 270 cm

Nedim Kufi

Nedim Kufi: Song of the Rain, 2007. Unique edition of 18 silkscreen prints accompanying the famous poem by Badir Shakir Al Sayyab. Each print 50 x 70 cm

Hana Mal Allah

Hana Mal Allah: Baghdad City Map, 2007. Mixed media on canvas; 180 x 180 cm. Loan courtesy of Hussain Ali Abbass Harba, Italy

Rashad Selim

Rashad Selim: Souvenir from the Ministry of Justice (2007). Found materials (wood, rubber, tie-wraps etc) built for the exhibition Green Zone/Red Zone

Independent Film & Television College, Baghdad

Open Shutters Project

Installation View 'Triumph: Proposal for an Iraqi Memorial' by Marc Bijl (sculpture right) and the Open Shutters Iraq project (left)