A café in Baghad: in the al-Mutannabi street districtHow much do Americans really know about Iraq and W.’s military adventures there? Of the few Hollywood films and documentaries subsequent to the invasion and occupation that began in March 2003, few delved below the surface (“In the Valley of Elah” dealt more with Iraq vets here at home than “over there”). Moreover, since  the Occupation, fewer than 250 Iraqi nationals have been allowed to emigrate to the United States with refugee status (while over half a million crowd into Amman, Jordan). And for years, American media was banned from broadcasting or publishing images of body bags or coffins. Somehow, war became remote, filtering through to us in a haze of figures and statistics.

In a new exhibition by British artist Jeremy Deller, residents and tourists visiting the Hammer Museum in Westwood on any given day from April 21 to May 17, 2009 (except Mondays) will find a diverse group of individuals to talk to, ranging from Iraqi nationals to war veterans, journalists and scholars who have first-hand experience of Iraq. These “guest experts”—expert in their own individual experiences—are independent voices who don’t represent any particular agenda. Your candidness and curiosity are most welcome. Read more on the guest experts and Jeremy Deller, see the complete Hammer schedule.

Jordan Elgrably, cofounder of Levantine Cultural Center, worked with Hammer curators and with Deller to organize these experts. A Los Angeles-based writer, Elgrably has been passionately committed to strengthening relations among communities in conflict for many years. He has written on the topic extensively and organized lectures and conferences about the region, including an event last year devoted to Iraq entitled “Memorial for Mutannabi Street.” He contributed an essay to a forthcoming literary anthology on the Mutannabi Street bombing in Baghdad of March 2007. Several confirmed participants include Issam Al-Askari whose family held many top positions in the Iraqi government prior to fleeing in 1958, Manal El-Shawaf Karim—a Baghdad-born businesswoman who got her Master’s in Architecture at UCLA, and Sean Huze who served in Iraq from 2001-2005 and has since authored several critically acclaimed plays including Sand Storm: Stories from the Front and Weasel which debuted at The Kennedy Center's Page 2 Stage Festival. His third play, The Dragon Slayer, addresses post-traumatic stress disorder brought on by the experience of combat in Iraq.

The carWhat’s In a Wreck? The Road Trip

The remains of a car that was destroyed in Iraq will share the courtyard with the resident guest experts. This object is meant to stimulate dialogue and ground conversations in reality. From March though mid-April, Deller traveled aboard an RV (the destroyed car hitched to the back) with two Iraq experts and a writer, who documented the journey. The RV stopped at various cultural institutions in cities including Washington, DC, Philadelphia, New Orleans, and Houston along the way to continue the conversation on a national scale, arriving at the Hammer Museum in April. It Is What It Is: Conversations About Iraq is part of the Three M Project—a series by the Hammer Museum, Los Angeles; the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago; and the New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York, to commission, organize, and co-present new works of art. It Is What It Is: Conversations About Iraq is curated at the New Museum by Laura Hoptman, Kraus Family Senior Curator and Amy Mackie, Curatorial Assistant and for Creative Time by Nato Thompson, Curator. The project is presented in collaboration with Creative Time.

Schedule

From April 21-May 17 come to the museum during the scheduled times below to speak with a guest expert.  See biographies below to determine who will be present during the given hours.  Many experts will be present more than once.

About the Car
One day there will be a museum dedicated to the conflict in Iraq. Until then we have to imagine what it might contain.

A car destroyed in a suicide bomb attack is a familiar image in the Western media, often a convenient replacement for the human form (or a corpse to be more precise). This particular car was destroyed in an attack on the crowded book market at Al-Mutanabbi street in central Baghdad on March 5, 2007. Thirtyeight people were killed and hundreds injured. And only recently has the market reopened.

Al-Mutanabbi street is a cultural and social hub of Baghdad, and the attack was inevitably interpreted as an attack on contemporary Iraqi culture itself as opposed to the ancient culture of museums and historic sites.

The street is aptly named after the celebrated ninth century poet Al-Mutanabbi. A controversial figure even in his own lifetime, he was under no illusion as to his own talents. He harbored political ambitions and was murdered by bandits on the road from Shiraz to Baghdad.

Much of his best-known work was concerned with immortalizing his powerful patrons, most notably Prince Saif al-Daula, for whom he wrote a number of poems celebrating the Prince’s achievements on the battlefield. In contrast, in a moving poem he describes his patron’s grief on the occasion of the death of his mother:

“The age has hurled rough times at me my heart is numb from its missiles And neatly where the arrow struck me the point of one blunted the other”

—Jeremy Deller

In May of 2007, after four months of negotiation, Dutch curator Robert Klüijver succeeded in shipping this and another bombed vehicle from Al-Mutanabbi to the Netherlands for an event entitled “War on Error,” which included a daylong discussion and performances, as well as the exhibition of the vehicles on Leidse Plein Square in Amsterdam. One or both of the cars have subsequently been exhibited in Rotterdam, Enschede, Utrecht, the Hague, and Houston, Texas.

Concept: Partizan Public; Logistics and organization: Robert Klüijver for the “War on Error Event.”

Project support: IKV Pax Christi, Hivos and the Green Party.

Donated to the New Museum by Robert Klüijverre