NEWSLETTER | July 2008

March – April: KRG – Iraq
ArtRole Director Adalet R Garmiany travelled to KRG-Iraq in collaboration with John Ferguson director of American Voices Association www.americanvoices.org US and Ali Zaidi artistic director of Motiroti www.motiroti.com, UK in order to:

- set up long terms of training course & workshop for artists, schools of arts a cross Iraq & arts organisations for 2008-09-010

- organise a trip of US & UK artists and curators to develop an art projects and run workshops for art students in August 2008

- meet with local government KRG, UK FCO in Erbil, US Embassy office in Erbil and some NGOs for support and collaborations

April: Los Angeles, US
Adalet R.Garmiany, invited by Nancy Buchanan, visited the Leventine Cultural Center, Calarts University and Outpost for Contemporary Art in Los Angeles to introduce Artrole’s activities and to initiate a connection between these institutions and art academies in Iraq-Kurdistan.

The Programme included a series of talks and presentations in universities, art centres and galleries to present ArtRole’s projects in the Middle East and establish a connection with Iraq and the Middle East. UK-based (resident) Kurdish artist, Adalet R.Garmiany, also did two performances - ‘Death Marketing’ and ‘Blame’.

May: An insight into current Iraq
London, Yorkshire, UK
A three-day programme of presentations was organised offering audiences a unique opportunity to hear the artists recounting their fascinating journey to Iraq-Kurdistan in November 2007.

American photographer, Susan Meiselas, launched the second edition of her book, Kurdistan: in the Shadow of History, a compelling and wide-ranging photo documentary on this region.

The programme at Yorkshire Sculpture Park was accompanied by a documentary on the artists’ journey to Iraq, as well as an experimental music/sound event by Richard Wilson, Anne Bean, Adalet R. Garmiany and UK-based sound artist, Chris Gladwin.


May-June: Second trip to Iraq-Kurdistan
This was an important visit as it enabled artists to further develop and exhibit the art projects they had begun following their first visit to Iraq-Kurdistan. Artists were joined by curator, Anna Bowman, from Yorkshire Sculpture Park.

During the visit, artist, Anne Bean collaborated with a group of local Kurdish women on a performance and Richard Wilson identified possible locations for his 20:50 oil installation, as seen at the Saatchi Gallery in London. Susan Meiselas launched and distributed her book to Kurdish organisations and Nancy Buchanan interviewed and filmed women for her documentary, exploring the theme of freedom.

Residencies 18th October - 14th November 2008
Two artists from Iraq, Hemin Hamid and Reben Majeed have been given the opportunity to undertake a residency in the UK to develop their work, explore British culture and contemporary art and introduce
their work to a British audience.

For the first residency, an Iraqi artist will spend three weeks at Artsadmin and at the Live Art Development Agency in London in research and development, which will result in a presentation. For the second residency, an artist will spend 3-4
weeks at Yorkshire Sculpture Park in research and development. It is anticipated that the artist’s research will centre around the host venue.

On their return the artists will also run a series of talks and presentations about their journey to the UK to the public in Iraqi-Kurdistan.

Book release


"Kurdistan: In the shadow of History " by Susan Meiselas
Info