ART CITIES:Berlin-Michael Rakowitz
Michael Rakowitz is an Iraqi-American Conceptual artist who operates within art spaces and beyond them. His work is deeply political and focuses mostly on Iraq which is where his family fled from. Rakowitz began to explore other aspects of the US-led invasion of Iraq, and its devastating effects on Iraqi society.
By Efi Michalarou
Photo: Barbara Wien Gallery & Art Bookshop Archive
Michael’s Rakowitz presents his ongoing project “The Invisible Enemy Should Not Exist” (2006– ) at Barbara Wien Gallery in Berlin. The project came in response to the US military’s failure to protect the museums, historical artifacts and archeological sites of Iraq from looting, particularly after the fall of Baghdad in April 2003. It is estimated that around 15,000 objects, were stolen from the National Museum of Iraq in this chaotic period. Approximately half of the items have been recovered, but due to the lack of stability in Baghdad, many objects remain in private hands or in museums abroad. Also the project is an homage to the former director of Baghdad’s Museum, Dr. Donny George Youkhanna, who dedicated his time to recovering the missing artifacts until his death in 2011. In 2006, Rakowitz and a team of assistants began to replicate these still-missing artifacts from the National Museum by gluing together scraps of Arabic-language newspapers and packaging from Middle Eastern food products. They constructed the objects in consultation with the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago, which had a massive collection of precise, detailed photographs documenting the country’s historical artifacts. Immediately after the looting of the Iraq Museum, the Oriental Institute created a website to track the missing items, where the image of each object is listed along with its most current status: “missing”, “stolen” or “unknown”. The project’s title is a translation of “Aj-ibur-shapu”, which was the name of the main processional street that passed through the Ishtar Gate in ancient Babylon. The history of this legendary gate offers interesting parallels to Michael Rakowitz’s project, in part because its new location since its excavation in the early 20th century is in Berlin’s Pergamon Museum. In the ‘50s, the Iraqi government had reproduced a replica made from plaster and wood in Babylon. Black and white pencil drawings annex narrative episodes. In one drawing, for instance, Dr. Donny George Youkhanna appears behind drums, an unexpected position to the ignorant viewer. A caption tells us that the archeologist used to play in a band called “99%” which covered songs by Deep Purple and Pink Floyd. Thus, the reason for the installation’s background soundtrack becomes clearer: Michael Rakowitz commissioned a band called Ayyoub to cover Deep Purple’s “Smoke on the Water” in Arabic, the ubiquitously played song of our time, which tells a story of senseless destruction and loss. Rakowitz continues to re-create the artifacts, “When you talk about 8,000 objects that are still at large, it becomes very clear that this is a project that will outlive me, my assistants and my entire studio”, he says. The futility of the replicating process, and their rendering in disposable packing materials, emphasizes the grave tragedy and irreversible loss that the country has suffered. “And that’s really one of the critical themes of the work”, Rakowitz continues “which is that you can’t rebuild history”.
Info: Barbara Wien Gallery & Art Bookshop, Schöneberger Ufer 65, 3rd floor, Berlin, Duration: 30/4-30/7/16, Days & Hours: Tue-Fri 13:00-18:00, Sat 12:00-18:00, www.barbarawien.de
