RPI - where I currently teach as adjunct arts faculty - has oficially banned the Iraqi artist, Wafaa Bilal's exhibition after its opening on Wed. (Mar. 5, 2008) night. It seems like a pretty stupid move, but in a sense is not surprising given the funding and support that RPI receives from the military, and its pivotal role in the military-industrial complex. It has sparked a bit of an outrage. If you want to write to the president to voice your opinion, go ahead.... president@rpi.edu
Here's a bit of a compilation of news articles and a press relsease from The Sanctuary for Independent Media where the exhibition will find, well, sanctuary.
PRESS RELEASE
Banned Iraqi Art Given Sanctuary;
Show Opens Monday 3/10 in Troy to
Launch Art, Freedom, Democracy Series
TROY—An art exhibit that Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute slammed shut on Thursday will open this week at The Sanctuary for Independent Media, 3361 Sixth Avenue in Troy. Iraqi-born digital media artist Wafaa Bilal will be present on Monday, March 10, 2007 for a reception at 6 PM followed by a 7 PM talk about his "Virtual Jihadi" installation. Admission to the reception and talk is by donation ($10 suggested, $5 student/low income). Call (518) 272-2390, email info@TheSanctuaryforIndependentMedia.org, or visit www.TheSanctuaryforIndependentMedia.org for directions and more information.
Another version of the same installation opened last Wednesday (March 5) at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute but it was abruptly closed the following day. The piece will be on display at The Sanctuary for Independent Media through April 4, 2008. "We are committed to freedom of expression, and didn't want the public deprived of their chance to see this important work," said Sanctuary spokeperson Steve Pierce. "It will be the centerpiece of a month-long celebration of art, freedom and democracy at the Sanctuary, which will include appearances by culture jammers The Yes Men, film maker Pam Yates and the Critical Art Ensemble's Professor Steve Kurtz."
Monday's opening is the first of four events. In addition to Wafaa Bilal and the "Virtual Jihadi" installation, they include:
7 PM Tue 3/18: The Yes Men live, with a sneak preview of scenes from the forthcoming film featuring their exploits in New Orleans as fictitious employees of the US Department of Housing and Urban Development, in Canada posing as ExxonMobil and National Petroleum Council representatives, and in other "identity-correction" hijinks around the world.
7 PM Tue 3/25: Director Pam Yates, and a screening of her documentary "State of Fear" about how fear of terrorism was used to undermine democracy in Peru, creating a virtual dictatorship where official corruption replaced the rule of law.
7 PM Fri 4/4: SUNY Buffalo Prof. Steve Kurtz, screening the new movie "Strange Culture" about his arrest and prosecution on "mail fraud" charges after a failed attempt by the Justice Department to frame him as a "bio-terrorist."
Background on Bilal's Story
The art installation by Wafaa Bilal consists of a virtual avatar of him in the costume of a suicide bomber. The avatar is placed in an existing first-person shooter video game called "The Night of Bush Capturing." That game is in turn a spoof of the game "Quest for Saddam." Both of the original games allow the player to roam the streets indiscriminately killing civilians as they hunt for the US President and the former Iraqi dictator. Bilal's alteration of the games reveals the tragic by-product of the clash between these two extremist visions: civilians caught in the cross-fire become easy recruits for more extremism, and fodder for an even more violent future.
RPI closed the "Virtual Jihadi" show after claims by the Campus Republicans that the Arts Department is a "Terrorist Safe Haven."
"This is a serious blow to freedom--I am very glad that The Sanctuary for Independent Media can restore the public's right to see this work" said Igor Vamos, RPI professor and member of the governing board of The Sanctuary for Independent Media.
At the exhibit-in-exile, viewers will be able to see and play the game on a large screen. There will be an opening reception featuring Wafaa Bilal on Monday from 6-7 PM. The installation will be open to the public from Monday, March 10 through Friday, March 15 from noon-2 PM as well as before and after regularly-scheduled events through April 4, 2008.
Wafaa Bilal was named 2007 Chicagoan of the Year by the Chicago Tribune, which wrote, "No artwork created in Chicago in 2007 received as much attention as Wafaa Bilal's 'Domestic Tension,' an interactive performance piece that subjected the Iraqi-born artist to a month of bombardment by paintballs from Internet viewers."
According to Wafaa Bilal:
My art is most influenced by the pain and suffering of growing up under Sadaam Hussein's repressive rule from 1968 to the recent “Iraqi Freedom War”. I experienced violence on a daily basis, and visions of death and terror together with the anguish to the Iraqi people are irrevocably etched in my memory. My generation in Iraq is defined by decades of war. Since coming to the United States I have also seen great injustice and suffering in the forms of poverty, racism, and many other forms of discrimination and hatred. From this point of departure, through art I strive to uncover an overarching human condition while creating a space for provocation, dialogue, and contemplation. As my friend and colleague Gregg Bordowitz has written, when we are exposed to violence on a daily basis, how can we, as political artists, convey this experience clearly to the viewer and leave a lasting impression that is fresh and solid in its conclusions, not cliché?
A constant negotiation must take place in order to embrace the aesthetic pleasure of the image’s surface, which is so necessary to capture the imagination, and to convey the aesthetic pain of the content. The failure of this negotiation can easily result in the alienation of the viewer, while a successful negotiation may result in active engagement and an opening of the viewer’s perspective. While I do not wish to impose narrow interpretations of my work but struggle to create complex and muli-dimensional images, I also do not feel we currently have the privilege to enjoy art purely as aesthetic pleasure. It is a misconception that art has ever been pure; historically it has been a means of expressing personal and societal realities and interpretations. We must actively employ the tension and incongruence produced by the coexistence of aesthetic pleasure and aesthetic pain to attract and jolt the viewer in a thought-provoking manner. As an active player in society and as both educator and agitator, the artist must keep pushing these boundaries.
The photographs I create are highly symbolic, “hyper-real” landscapes, landscapes of possibilities existing just beyond reality, expressing emotions and conditions that permeate reality. They equally could be called “interior landscapes,” representative of the psychology of human suffering in a society ruled by oppression, domination, and fear. Figures exist in equal balance with the landscapes, the images drawing their complexity from this dramatic polar tension. Within the frame, time and place loses specificity to become transcendent and expressive of a broader human condition.
Video installations provide another level of impact besides the content of the image: we observe movement, a physical language the body understands. I play with the viewer’s presence and engagement or lack thereof, allowing this to directly impact the action and outcome of the piece. As the viewer may be far removed from the conflict addressed within the work, it is important to communicate to the viewer through a recognizable visual language, and so I filter the subject through historical and psychological contexts of the subject’s specific locale. The frame acts as a historical window to the past, while the moving image exemplifies a persistent-present, a current condition influenced by internal or external circumstances that inhibit change. The moment something is done to change a situation, the persistent-present becomes a progressive present where change can occur.
My memories of Iraq and my disenchantment with politics have not left me cynical, nor drained of hope for humanity. On the contrary, I am filled with belief in the power of the people to control their own destinies, and I continue to believe in social justice. I hope to foster a sense of self-empowerment in my audience and to counter the sense of powerlessness people feel in the face of inhumanity."
Wafaa Bilal was born in Iraq on June 10, 1966. Because a member of his family had been accused of disloyalty to his country, Wafaa was denied the opportunity to pursue his dream of being an artist. Instead, he was to attend college to major in geography. While in college, he continued to pursue his art and was arrested and tortured for his political art work against Sadaam Hussein.
Shortly after the Gulf War, Wafaa was inspired by President Bush’s message to the Iraqi citizens that if they attempted to overthrow Sadaam, the US would stand behind them. He became involved in organizing opposition to the government and was scheduled for arrest and execution when he escaped into Kuwait. There he was accused of being a spy and was close to being shot when his student ID convinced them he told the truth.
Wafaa was sent to a refugee camp on the Kuwaiti border. In the camp, people laughed when rather than accept life in a tent he began forming brick that he dried in the sun and fashioned into a home. The adobe served a practical purpose, for it provided relative safety from abduction by Kuwaiti soldiers who sneaked into tents in the middle of the night to kidnap young people for sale to Iraqi soldiers who tortured, raped and executed them or the Turkish soldiers themselves would rape and kill them.
For two years, Wafaa lived in limbo not knowing if each day would be his last. Still Wafaa worked to improve his art, cleaning toilets in the camp to earn the money for art supplies, buying supplies for children for art therapy to help them to work through the horrors witnessed. His experiences developed within him an abhorrence of violence and oppression and strengthened his inner resolve.
In 1992, Wafaa came to the United States and took classes to learn English. Then, he began art studies at the University of New Mexico where he excelled. His art is of a political nature that speaks to oppression of the human spirit, including that of women who are bound by the rules of culture. He has won many awards for his art as well as a scholarship to the Chicago Institute of Art for post graduate study. He is now teaching at that institution.
In addition, Wafaa travels to give lectures on the oppressive nature of Sadaam’s regime in the hope of informing people of the complexities of the situation as well as the atrocities committed and the importance of nonviolent means of ending conflict. It has been 14 years since he was last able to see his mother and younger siblings. He speaks to them on the phone to hear how they flee from one war torn city to another in an effort to find safety. His 21 year-old brother who was staunchly apolitical lost his life to stray American gunfire. His father died when his health deteriorated after the death of his youngest son.
This presentation is made possible by volunteer labor and hundreds of small donations from patrons of The Sanctuary for Independent Media.
The Sanctuary for Independent Media is a telecommunications production facility dedicated to community media arts, located in an historic former church at 3361 6th Avenue in north Troy, NY. The Sanctuary hosts screening, production and performance facilities, training in media production and a meeting space for artists, activists and independent media makers of all kinds.
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RESOURCES:
Wafaa Bilal
http://www.WafaaBilal.com
Chicago Tribune "Chicagoan of the Year" article:
http://tinyurl.com/342v2d
Hi res images (credit Shawn Lawson):
http://hm.indymedia.org/usermedia/image/7/large/headshot.jpg
http://hm.indymedia.org/usermedia/image/5/large/headshot2.jpg
Hi res images (credit Wafaa Bilal):
http://hm.indymedia.org/usermedia/image/7/large/wafaa-jihadi__for_press.jpg
http://hm.indymedia.org/usermedia/image/10/large/censored.jpg
http://hm.indymedia.org/usermedia/image/12/large/censored_2.jpg
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