0:00:03 > 0:00:08Iraq and art aren't words that usually go together.
0:00:11 > 0:00:16Decades of war, of despotism and despair have seen to that.
0:00:20 > 0:00:23When you think how many catastrophes we've been through,
0:00:23 > 0:00:29through the ages, and yet we survived.
0:00:29 > 0:00:34What actually kept us going since civilisation started in this land
0:00:34 > 0:00:36is our culture.
0:00:39 > 0:00:42And culture is making a comeback in Iraq.
0:00:42 > 0:00:47For the first time since Saddam Hussein seized power some 35 years ago,
0:00:47 > 0:00:51Iraq has a presence at the prestigious Venice Biennale.
0:00:53 > 0:00:55It's the Olympics of art,
0:00:55 > 0:00:59where nations invite their artists to represent them on a world stage.
0:00:59 > 0:01:03Six artists offer a powerful insight into their country,
0:01:03 > 0:01:05from inside and from out.
0:01:05 > 0:01:09This is a story of exile, as well as belonging.
0:01:37 > 0:01:39HELICOPTER WHIRRS
0:01:49 > 0:01:52As the Palestinian writer Edward Said once said,
0:01:52 > 0:01:55"Most people are aware of one culture,
0:01:55 > 0:02:01"one setting, one home. Exiles are aware of at least two."
0:02:03 > 0:02:06"Everything they do in the new environment occurs
0:02:06 > 0:02:09"against the memory of it in the old."
0:02:09 > 0:02:12All these Iraqi artists live like that.
0:02:12 > 0:02:14In the land that has taken them in,
0:02:14 > 0:02:17and the land that they remember, and imagine.
0:02:28 > 0:02:31The first artist we meet lives in Finland,
0:02:31 > 0:02:35not necessarily where you'd expect to find an Iraqi.
0:02:37 > 0:02:39Abidin, that's the one.
0:02:48 > 0:02:51- Hello.- I'm Alan.
0:02:51 > 0:02:53Hi, Adam, huh?
0:02:53 > 0:02:57- That's very, very welcoming.- You know! It's my territory, my rules.
0:02:57 > 0:02:59- Come in.- All right, thank you.
0:03:00 > 0:03:04'Adel's been here in Finland since the year 2000.'
0:03:04 > 0:03:07- So this is your studio?- Yeah.
0:03:07 > 0:03:12I see it says, "Welcome to Baghdad" on the..
0:03:12 > 0:03:15- That's right, to create a small section of Baghdad here.- Yes.
0:03:15 > 0:03:19I went to Baghdad 2004, by car from Jordan,
0:03:19 > 0:03:22so when I was entering Baghdad there was a the American checkpoint
0:03:22 > 0:03:26and there was this American soldier with the glasses
0:03:26 > 0:03:30and like typical American, you know, that you see in movies.
0:03:30 > 0:03:34And he, he told me, "Welcome to Baghdad."
0:03:34 > 0:03:37So it was like, are you kidding me here?
0:03:37 > 0:03:39It's my city, you know.
0:03:42 > 0:03:46When you get your own country invaded in this way,
0:03:46 > 0:03:50you start not to belong to that place any more, even if you are from there.
0:03:51 > 0:03:56Emigrating to Finland inspired one of Adel's video installations.
0:03:58 > 0:04:01Viewers look into a spy hole in a fridge.
0:04:01 > 0:04:04A man inside the fridge fires questions at them.
0:04:06 > 0:04:08What do you think about 11th September?
0:04:08 > 0:04:11Are you a Muslim? Sunni?
0:04:11 > 0:04:14Samantha Fox, do you know who she is?
0:04:14 > 0:04:16Did you see Baghdad burning?
0:04:16 > 0:04:19Those questions are real questions, actually,
0:04:19 > 0:04:21I used to hear them from people.
0:04:21 > 0:04:25I just gathered them, I didn't write any from my own.
0:04:25 > 0:04:28Bin Laden, where do you think he is right now?
0:04:28 > 0:04:30All these questions people ask me.
0:04:30 > 0:04:33Suicide bombers, what do you think about them?
0:04:33 > 0:04:36Where is Osama Bin Laden? Where is Saddam Hussein?
0:04:36 > 0:04:40I mean, how the hell I know? If the CIA doesn't know, how do you think I would know?
0:04:40 > 0:04:42How does it feel to ride a camel?
0:04:42 > 0:04:46So I could have asked you, how is the situation in Iraq right now?
0:04:46 > 0:04:48How IS the situation in Iraq right now?
0:04:48 > 0:04:51- Are you asking me right now? - Yeah, sure.- I have no idea.
0:04:51 > 0:04:54What do you think of Osama Bin Laden?
0:04:54 > 0:04:56LAUGHS
0:04:56 > 0:04:59- How does it feel to ride a camel? - It feels good!
0:04:59 > 0:05:02I've done it myself, I think it feels good too.
0:05:02 > 0:05:06What are the things that Finland has brought to your work?
0:05:06 > 0:05:09Be free and think in a free way
0:05:09 > 0:05:12and do whatever I want and don't give a damn.
0:05:13 > 0:05:17Adel has re-imagined the propaganda songs of his youth.
0:05:17 > 0:05:19# Ooo-ooo
0:05:19 > 0:05:22# Ooo-ooo-oo... #
0:05:22 > 0:05:25If you are real in what you do and you believe in it,
0:05:25 > 0:05:29anybody will understand it, even if it's totally strange.
0:05:39 > 0:05:43These songs that made in '90s basically to flatter
0:05:43 > 0:05:45Saddam himself as a person.
0:05:45 > 0:05:49Like they were singing like, "We love you, we kill people for you,"
0:05:49 > 0:05:51it's like a kind of weirdo lover.
0:05:54 > 0:05:57We all used to sing these songs
0:05:57 > 0:05:59because they made them in a really nice melody.
0:05:59 > 0:06:02It's like really brainwashing. So, it felt to me like
0:06:02 > 0:06:06all of us in that time, we were like the cliche of a bimbo.
0:06:06 > 0:06:09We just repeat what we sang.
0:06:13 > 0:06:16But the lyrics are funny when you read them,
0:06:16 > 0:06:20like, "We will wipe America from the map." I mean, hello?!
0:06:20 > 0:06:23"We are swords and we only fit in your right hand.
0:06:23 > 0:06:28"By Allah, we owe our lives to your moustache."
0:06:28 > 0:06:29Yeah, yeah, yeah.
0:06:29 > 0:06:34- So if he shaves it, we'll all... - It's all over!
0:06:45 > 0:06:47SINGING IN IRAQI
0:06:47 > 0:06:50My God, is that the original? The same song?
0:06:50 > 0:06:52The same song.
0:06:53 > 0:06:57'This is the real version, a strident propaganda song,
0:06:57 > 0:07:00'transformed by Adel into a sexy nightclub number.'
0:07:00 > 0:07:06- It's a nice song, actually, when you hear it.- Yeah, sure.
0:07:08 > 0:07:11Saddam was really a scary guy.
0:07:11 > 0:07:14This guy created something in Iraq
0:07:14 > 0:07:17that you are afraid of even your friend might be a spy on you.
0:07:19 > 0:07:22That what made the society really like, not solid.
0:07:22 > 0:07:26You don't know who is your friend, who is your enemy.
0:07:26 > 0:07:29It's quite dangerous for you to go back to Iraq?
0:07:29 > 0:07:33Iraqis are funny, like I said, "So how's the situation there?"
0:07:33 > 0:07:35"Oh, it's really safe now. There is no problem
0:07:35 > 0:07:38"Just explosion here and there." It's like... You know, like, OK.
0:07:40 > 0:07:42Those guys who appear in these videos,
0:07:42 > 0:07:46kidnap for the sake of religion and Islam,
0:07:46 > 0:07:49and they have this Koranic phrases behind them.
0:07:49 > 0:07:53'I was asking myself - the benefit, in the end, goes to whom?'
0:07:53 > 0:07:55HE CHANTS
0:07:55 > 0:07:59'They're actually feeding, or giving more legitimacy,
0:07:59 > 0:08:02'to the occupier whenever they do these kinds of acts.'
0:08:02 > 0:08:05So I thought, why don't I shorten the whole thing?
0:08:05 > 0:08:08Bring that guy, make him sing to the American flag.
0:08:08 > 0:08:12# This land is your land
0:08:12 > 0:08:15# This land is my land
0:08:15 > 0:08:17# From California
0:08:17 > 0:08:20# To the New York island
0:08:20 > 0:08:23# From the redwood forests
0:08:23 > 0:08:26# To the Gulf Stream waters
0:08:26 > 0:08:32# All this land was made for you and me... #
0:08:32 > 0:08:37In New York City, Ahmed Alsoudani has had a meteoric rise to fame.
0:08:37 > 0:08:39So much so that he's being photographed
0:08:39 > 0:08:42for a spread in Vogue magazine.
0:08:42 > 0:08:47- Can we move the angle? - Take it from that side.
0:08:47 > 0:08:48Take it from this side.
0:08:55 > 0:08:59It's a world away from Baghdad, where he was born and brought up.
0:09:06 > 0:09:10He left because he defaced a mural of Saddam Hussein.
0:09:10 > 0:09:14He had to make a run for it, and he hasn't been back since.
0:09:19 > 0:09:22'You know, when you're 19, 20,
0:09:22 > 0:09:28'you think you can change the world by doing such a funny thing.'
0:09:30 > 0:09:36After all these years, I have more freedom to damage the mural,
0:09:36 > 0:09:40in my painting. So it's a circle.
0:09:40 > 0:09:44It's funny to end up doing the same thing that I have done
0:09:44 > 0:09:46more than 20 years ago.
0:09:49 > 0:09:53My work is about chaos...
0:09:53 > 0:09:56and the suffering of human beings.
0:09:56 > 0:10:04And how...brutal and harsh the life that we've been dealing with.
0:10:04 > 0:10:06We pretend it's beautiful, but it's not.
0:10:10 > 0:10:13'The chaos, violence - this subject matter,
0:10:13 > 0:10:17'people have been dealing with it for many, many years.
0:10:17 > 0:10:19'And there is kind of an unwritten rule,
0:10:19 > 0:10:23'using earthy tones - dark, grey, colours.
0:10:23 > 0:10:27'They keep the viewer from communicating with the painting.
0:10:27 > 0:10:31'So I'm trying to do something a little bit different.
0:10:33 > 0:10:36'Of course, knowing these pieces are going to be in Venice,
0:10:36 > 0:10:40'I'm trying to do my best.
0:10:40 > 0:10:44'Hopefully, I will be done in the next month or so.'
0:10:44 > 0:10:49Ahmed calls himself an Iraqi-born American artist.
0:10:49 > 0:10:53'To represent a country officially, it's such a great thing.
0:10:53 > 0:10:57'I didn't train there, I studied here, but I spent more than half
0:10:57 > 0:11:00'of my life over there, and my mum and my family are still there,
0:11:00 > 0:11:05'so they update me with all these horrible things happening.
0:11:07 > 0:11:16'I try with all these difficulties to keep in my head a beautiful image.'
0:11:16 > 0:11:20I'm afraid to go over there, I don't want to damage the image in my head.
0:11:21 > 0:11:27Always I go back to my experience, and it's such a treasure,
0:11:27 > 0:11:29with all horrible things in it,
0:11:29 > 0:11:33but it's a good place to always go and dig.
0:11:42 > 0:11:44For the Venice Biennale,
0:11:44 > 0:11:48big league countries have permanent national pavilions.
0:11:48 > 0:11:51Newcomers have to find places on the fringes.
0:11:51 > 0:11:54Just round the corner from the Arsenale,
0:11:54 > 0:11:57this old house on a backwater will be the Iraqi pavilion.
0:11:59 > 0:12:02The curator of the show is Mary Angela Schroth,
0:12:02 > 0:12:04an American based in Rome.
0:12:04 > 0:12:08She's been negotiating with the Iraqi government for
0:12:08 > 0:12:13official recognition - tricky, when the country's still in disarray.
0:12:13 > 0:12:16OK, well, what can you say?
0:12:21 > 0:12:25She's teamed up with Ali Assaf, an Iraqi exile who also lives in Rome.
0:12:25 > 0:12:29It was Ali who first had the idea of bringing Iraq to Venice.
0:12:31 > 0:12:35We had always this desire to participate in Biennale Venice.
0:12:37 > 0:12:41And it was not possible because of our relation with the past regime.
0:12:43 > 0:12:48So we thought exactly in 2004 when things changed, we said,
0:12:48 > 0:12:50"OK, now, why not?
0:12:50 > 0:12:52"We have to do it, we can do it".
0:12:52 > 0:12:54So seven years' planning?
0:12:54 > 0:12:57Yeah, yeah - planning, thinking,
0:12:57 > 0:13:00talking with Mary Angela Schroth, the curator.
0:13:00 > 0:13:04She gave me very much energy and she said, OK, we risk,
0:13:04 > 0:13:10and we just open a door and we will see, maybe other doors will open.
0:13:16 > 0:13:21We were shown a few places. Some of them looked more like art galleries.
0:13:22 > 0:13:26The choice came to this, very simply, because when I walked in,
0:13:26 > 0:13:28it felt like an old Iraqi house.
0:13:31 > 0:13:34It actually brings back those memories.
0:13:37 > 0:13:45For us, it's like a symbol of an Iraqi house which is abandoned,
0:13:45 > 0:13:50like a family left because of war.
0:13:50 > 0:13:53For this reason, most of the rooms we kept as it is.
0:14:03 > 0:14:08They also decided on a theme for the group's show. Water - wounded water.
0:14:08 > 0:14:12Water is a resource with which Venice is awash,
0:14:12 > 0:14:16but it's perilously scarce in Iraq.
0:14:37 > 0:14:39Four months to go before the Venice show,
0:14:39 > 0:14:43and Walid Siti is working on the theme of water.
0:14:46 > 0:14:48Walid, hi.
0:14:48 > 0:14:53'He comes from Kurdistan, the mountainous north of Iraq.
0:14:53 > 0:14:57'The fountain head for the dry lands below.'
0:14:59 > 0:15:04- I see lots of mountains. - That's right.
0:15:04 > 0:15:07Everything in this room seems to be a part of your memory,
0:15:07 > 0:15:09that history of yours.
0:15:09 > 0:15:13My family come from Iraq originally, my father left in '48,
0:15:13 > 0:15:16my mother left even earlier, and I've never been there.
0:15:16 > 0:15:18Interesting.
0:15:18 > 0:15:19I think for me, as an artist,
0:15:19 > 0:15:22I feel my strength - if there is any strength -
0:15:22 > 0:15:27is to do with my culture, with my roots, where I belong to.
0:15:27 > 0:15:31Though I live here in London and I'm very happy to be here,
0:15:31 > 0:15:36of course, I feel what feeds my imagination, my feeling,
0:15:36 > 0:15:41my emotion, is what's going on there.
0:15:41 > 0:15:43'Walid went to art school in Baghdad
0:15:43 > 0:15:49'and left in 1976 when persecution of the Kurds was intensifying.'
0:15:49 > 0:15:55THEY CHAT INAUDIBLY
0:15:55 > 0:15:58'His family still lives there.
0:16:00 > 0:16:02'Northern Iraq is now relatively peaceful
0:16:02 > 0:16:05'and Walid is able to go back.'
0:16:17 > 0:16:19'From the window of the plane,
0:16:19 > 0:16:24'I saw this beautiful view of one of the tributaries to the Tigris River.
0:16:24 > 0:16:30'The image was overwhelming and amazing, this kind of artery,
0:16:30 > 0:16:34'like a snake, moving over a dry, barren landscape.
0:16:34 > 0:16:38'You feel the thirst of all this space for water.'
0:16:40 > 0:16:43All the hope for that land and the people there.
0:16:47 > 0:16:51This is Arbil, the fastest-growing town in Northern Iraq.
0:16:51 > 0:16:56It has a gallery for contemporary art, pretty unusual in Iraq,
0:16:56 > 0:16:59where most art is traditional or decorative.
0:16:59 > 0:17:01Going out can be dangerous.
0:17:02 > 0:17:05THEY GREET ONE ANOTHER IN OWN LANGUAGE
0:17:15 > 0:17:17He says people are visiting the galleries in Baghdad
0:17:17 > 0:17:20but it is quite risky.
0:17:20 > 0:17:22People visit and they are not sure if they'll be back or not
0:17:22 > 0:17:24because it is so dangerous.
0:17:27 > 0:17:31Walid is here to help install a show of his silent mountain pictures.
0:17:33 > 0:17:40'Mountains, for me, is a form like a pyramid, for example.'
0:17:40 > 0:17:47You try to reach the summit, you'll be able to see more.
0:17:47 > 0:17:52It's a kind of enlightenment as well. This repetition is like poetry.
0:17:57 > 0:18:01'Mountain is a place where they used to flee from the government, to go to the mountain as a refuge.
0:18:04 > 0:18:06'Mountain is like an identity for them.
0:18:08 > 0:18:14That's why the Kurds claim that Kurds have no friends but the mountains.
0:18:28 > 0:18:33We had a very harsh time because we never knew what would happen to us.
0:18:33 > 0:18:36Every minute, you were under threat that somebody come to the door
0:18:36 > 0:18:40or people in the villages, a lot of them, just disappeared.
0:18:44 > 0:18:45As-Salamu Alaykum...
0:18:46 > 0:18:50In his home town of Duhok in the 1950s, Walid's father formed
0:18:50 > 0:18:52the first workers' union.
0:18:56 > 0:18:59'He defended the right of the workers and, for that reason,
0:18:59 > 0:19:03'he went to prison twice.'
0:19:07 > 0:19:09MAN TALKS OWN LANGUAGE
0:19:14 > 0:19:19He says in 1963, there was a coup d'etat by the Ba'athist Party.
0:19:19 > 0:19:24A policeman and one intelligence serviceman came to the shop where he worked.
0:19:24 > 0:19:29They asked him to go to the police station.
0:19:29 > 0:19:33So he just found a quick excuse and he ran.
0:19:35 > 0:19:39I asked him how long he stayed, and he said for six years.
0:19:39 > 0:19:40In the mountains.
0:19:51 > 0:19:54This is Saddam's interrogation centre in northern Iraq.
0:19:56 > 0:20:01'Any dissent or cry for freedom - even having a typewriter would be
0:20:01 > 0:20:03'enough on its own to be in prison.'
0:20:06 > 0:20:09It's now a museum and art gallery.
0:20:09 > 0:20:12One of the artists who was working here,
0:20:12 > 0:20:16he was taking the story from the victims and he makes sculptures.
0:20:16 > 0:20:20I call this theatre sculpture.
0:20:20 > 0:20:26It's just showing you how was the situation in these spaces here.
0:20:30 > 0:20:35Saddam Hussein was using the tanks, like what you see outside,
0:20:35 > 0:20:38against the civilian people.
0:20:40 > 0:20:44In 1988, Saddam Hussein, the regime, he destroy all the villages
0:20:44 > 0:20:49on the border and it was around 5,000 villages.
0:20:49 > 0:20:54We had the idea to build a house with something that remain from the families.
0:21:01 > 0:21:07The mirror is representing the victims. 182,000 victims.
0:21:28 > 0:21:32At Walid's show, the local dignitaries are out in force.
0:21:38 > 0:21:42The city's art students are here too.
0:21:42 > 0:21:44HE TALKS IN OWN LANGUAGE
0:21:44 > 0:21:45TRANSLATION: It's new for me.
0:21:45 > 0:21:48I've not seen anything like this in Kurdistan.
0:21:50 > 0:21:54It's normally realist art here. This is very new. That's why I like it.
0:21:54 > 0:21:57HE TALKS IN OWN LANGUAGE
0:21:57 > 0:22:01TRANSLATION: I think Walid wants to go to the top of the mountain, step by step.
0:22:01 > 0:22:02HE TALKS IN OWN LANGUAGE
0:22:02 > 0:22:06TRANSLATION: The mountain means power. To take power.
0:22:09 > 0:22:11Shwan is here.
0:22:11 > 0:22:15He's the man responsible for raising money for the Venice show.
0:22:15 > 0:22:18He thought it would be easy but it wasn't.
0:22:18 > 0:22:25The excuse was, why promote art?
0:22:25 > 0:22:30Go outside, see what's happening.
0:22:30 > 0:22:33We have no schools, no orphanages.
0:22:35 > 0:22:38We have no health care. We need electricity.
0:22:38 > 0:22:43So, as a big corporation, why should I support art?
0:22:43 > 0:22:49They're really looking at putting a band aid on the body
0:22:49 > 0:22:51and forgetting all about the soul.
0:22:53 > 0:22:56It's quite fortunate that Walid is able to come back here,
0:22:56 > 0:22:59with other artists who worked
0:22:59 > 0:23:03in Baghdad or in the south. It's a very different situation.
0:23:03 > 0:23:07Even some Iraqis that are here now are afraid to go back to Baghdad.
0:23:14 > 0:23:196,000 miles away in New York City, Ahmed Alsoudani is waiting
0:23:19 > 0:23:23for the results of the biggest sale of his life.
0:23:26 > 0:23:30In London, one of Ahmed's paintings is coming up at Christie's.
0:23:30 > 0:23:32His dealer is here.
0:23:32 > 0:23:35- He's in good company, Ahmed, then? - Yeah, he is.
0:23:35 > 0:23:40It's quite scary company, isn't it? Isn't it Warhol, Damien Hirst...?
0:23:40 > 0:23:41It's very scary.
0:23:41 > 0:23:44I think it's appropriate, but it's early days, you know?
0:23:44 > 0:23:46He's a young artist.
0:23:46 > 0:23:49It is a big deal and it is anxiety-producing.
0:23:49 > 0:23:53That picture is owned by Charles Saatchi, and one of several, I take it?
0:23:53 > 0:23:57Saatchi owns a number of very good paintings by Ahmed,
0:23:57 > 0:23:59and works on paper.
0:23:59 > 0:24:02Is this a big moment? A Middle Eastern artist
0:24:02 > 0:24:05in this company is quite something, I don't dare say.
0:24:05 > 0:24:09Maybe. I don't particularly believe in these kinds of, you know,
0:24:09 > 0:24:13regionalist ideas, and if you are a really regional artist,
0:24:13 > 0:24:16I think you wouldn't end up in, or even excel in, Christie's!
0:24:16 > 0:24:18The Warhol portrait, here it is,
0:24:18 > 0:24:20£9,600,000.
0:24:20 > 0:24:22Sold...
0:24:22 > 0:24:26to the room at £9,600,000. Well done, sir. Paddle number 38.
0:24:26 > 0:24:29Lot number 34, the Ahmed Alsoudani.
0:24:29 > 0:24:33The 2008 picture. I can start the bidding at £100,000...
0:24:33 > 0:24:36He may not be Andy Warhol yet, but he's in the big league.
0:24:36 > 0:24:40Ahmed now has a waiting list for his work and show all over the world.
0:24:40 > 0:24:43150 is here.
0:24:43 > 0:24:46About twice what we would sell...
0:24:46 > 0:24:48180,000.
0:24:50 > 0:24:52No, no.
0:24:52 > 0:24:56The Alsoudani, then, at 180,000,
0:24:56 > 0:24:58selling on the far left.
0:24:59 > 0:25:00All done.
0:25:00 > 0:25:03At £180,000.
0:25:03 > 0:25:05Yours, Ingrid.
0:25:11 > 0:25:12Oh, it's gone already!
0:25:13 > 0:25:15It's gone! That was fast.
0:25:15 > 0:25:18So shall I call Ahmed down?
0:25:19 > 0:25:21Hi, it's Robert.
0:25:21 > 0:25:24I'm just giving you the news - it sold well. It sold...
0:25:24 > 0:25:29for £180 plus the commission so it'll be about 325, 330.
0:25:30 > 0:25:32Dollars. It's a good result.
0:25:32 > 0:25:34OK, speak to you soon, bye.
0:25:35 > 0:25:38- Pleased?- Yes. He's like... He's just relieved.
0:25:38 > 0:25:41But when you think that two or three years ago
0:25:41 > 0:25:44he was selling for 20,000 so...
0:25:44 > 0:25:47- that's quite a boost, isn't it? - It was a good investment!
0:25:50 > 0:25:54'All this success, I never thought that's going to happen.'
0:25:54 > 0:25:56Better this than not this.
0:25:56 > 0:25:59No, no, it's really... Yeah. It's great.
0:25:59 > 0:26:02It's a lot of pressure, but...
0:26:02 > 0:26:05I try to be in my studio and paint as much as I can.
0:26:05 > 0:26:07What's going to go to Venice here?
0:26:07 > 0:26:10There are four paintings, and they are done.
0:26:10 > 0:26:14We're just waiting for probably a couple more weeks
0:26:14 > 0:26:16to be shipped.
0:26:16 > 0:26:19'Though he was brought up in the Middle East,
0:26:19 > 0:26:23'he's also immersed in Western art history.'
0:26:23 > 0:26:28It actually almost has everything to do with a painting by Caravaggio.
0:26:28 > 0:26:30So, this image, it's here.
0:26:31 > 0:26:34This guy, here.
0:26:35 > 0:26:37And that, here.
0:26:37 > 0:26:39And this guy
0:26:39 > 0:26:41is not here because...
0:26:41 > 0:26:48he tried to protect Christ also to block the chaos behind his hands.
0:26:50 > 0:26:51Behind here.
0:26:51 > 0:26:55So I took him out and I show the chaos.
0:26:55 > 0:26:59It's risky to show people
0:26:59 > 0:27:03where this painting comes from because he's Caravaggio
0:27:03 > 0:27:07so the risk comes from... that will destroy my painting,
0:27:07 > 0:27:08- but I'm willing to take a risk.
0:27:11 > 0:27:16In Helsinki, Ahdal is tussling with the water theme for Venice.
0:27:16 > 0:27:20I don't like to show water when I talk about water.
0:27:20 > 0:27:23So it was really hard until, like, I came up with an idea.
0:27:23 > 0:27:27I don't know if anybody will understand it, but I think it's really connected to water.
0:27:28 > 0:27:31He's calling it Consumption Of War.
0:27:31 > 0:27:33Explain to me the concept of this.
0:27:33 > 0:27:39I thought the best way is to really see the real source of...
0:27:39 > 0:27:42the threat of water, or the lack of water, we will have.
0:27:42 > 0:27:48It's basically because of the factories and the corporations, they want to be better than each other
0:27:48 > 0:27:50and in the end, they have to produce things
0:27:50 > 0:27:53and that production is actually sucking in the water.
0:27:54 > 0:27:59If you make one pair of jeans, it takes 1,400 gallons of water.
0:27:59 > 0:28:01BUZZING
0:28:04 > 0:28:06- This is Star Wars?- Exactly, yeah.
0:28:08 > 0:28:12It could be like Cain and Abel as well, if you want to go through...
0:28:12 > 0:28:13THEY LAUGH
0:28:16 > 0:28:18It's the coming war.
0:28:18 > 0:28:19It's the next war.
0:28:37 > 0:28:40A litre of water right now, drinking water,
0:28:40 > 0:28:45is actually more experience than the litre of gas that I put in the car.
0:28:45 > 0:28:46That is reality.
0:28:51 > 0:28:54I am not going to be so cowboy-ish
0:28:54 > 0:28:56as to say yes, there will be war.
0:28:56 > 0:29:00I will say that if we do not solve the problem creatively,
0:29:00 > 0:29:04there will be tensions, and God knows, we don't need any more tension in this area.
0:29:07 > 0:29:11Iraq for ever has been using the Tigris and Euphrates as open sewers.
0:29:12 > 0:29:15Essentially, this is sewage from Sulaymaniyah city
0:29:15 > 0:29:19which eventually becomes drinking water
0:29:19 > 0:29:21for the rest of Iraq.
0:29:24 > 0:29:27Looks suspiciously like a nice waterfall which children can go in
0:29:27 > 0:29:31and swim. It's an horrific thought, actually.
0:29:32 > 0:29:36It's bad enough that animals could come down here and drink.
0:29:42 > 0:29:47And this was once Mesopotamia, the land between two rivers,
0:29:47 > 0:29:48the Garden of Eden.
0:29:50 > 0:29:54The head water of the Tigris and Euphrates come from the mountains of Kurdistan.
0:29:54 > 0:29:57Divided between Iraq, Iran, Turkey and Syria.
0:29:58 > 0:30:02It is not only being dammed in Turkey, it is also being dammed in Iran.
0:30:04 > 0:30:07So we have less and less and less water.
0:30:07 > 0:30:10The end result is that within a few years,
0:30:10 > 0:30:14agriculture is going to die in the land where it was born.
0:30:21 > 0:30:23Up at the fountain head in Kurdistan,
0:30:23 > 0:30:28Walida's taking photos of the waterfall, Gali Ali Bag,
0:30:28 > 0:30:30for an artwork he's planning for Venice.
0:30:30 > 0:30:33This waterfall is very famous in Iraq.
0:30:33 > 0:30:35It's like a Mecca for tourists.
0:30:38 > 0:30:41This image is even featured on the 5,000 Iraqi note.
0:30:43 > 0:30:47You wouldn't think from the weather today, but this waterfall
0:30:47 > 0:30:51in the summer dries up and they pump water
0:30:51 > 0:30:54to keep it running so that people come and see it.
0:30:55 > 0:30:57It's a kind of deceit, isn't it?
0:30:57 > 0:30:59They're pumping the water here
0:30:59 > 0:31:03- to promote the idea that it is a bountiful...- Yeah, absolutely.
0:31:03 > 0:31:05..waterfall. But there isn't any water there.
0:31:05 > 0:31:07I mean, in the winter and spring, there is still.
0:31:07 > 0:31:09But in the summer, it does dry up.
0:31:09 > 0:31:13So this image, will you be making an image like this of the banknote?
0:31:13 > 0:31:16That's right. A large image, about five or four-and-a-half metres,
0:31:16 > 0:31:18by maybe three metres.
0:31:18 > 0:31:23And I will project, from the back, the waterfall.
0:31:23 > 0:31:27The Waterfall is one of two works that Walid is preparing for Venice.
0:31:27 > 0:31:31In the entrance of the venue in Venice, I will have a wall,
0:31:31 > 0:31:34which is quite long, about nine, ten metres.
0:31:34 > 0:31:38So I will occupy that wall with stripes to express the tension,
0:31:38 > 0:31:43express the need and express the dependence of the land on that river.
0:31:45 > 0:31:50That building, which is very run down and tired and crumbling, the walls...
0:31:50 > 0:31:55But, as somebody said, that will just fit the state of Iraq as it is now.
0:32:16 > 0:32:19The Venice Biennale is the glitziest event
0:32:19 > 0:32:22in the international art world calendar.
0:32:23 > 0:32:26It's somewhere between the Cannes Film Festival, the Olympics
0:32:26 > 0:32:29and an international trade fair.
0:32:33 > 0:32:36It takes place on two huge sites.
0:32:37 > 0:32:40But on a backwater, a few hundred yards from the other
0:32:40 > 0:32:44grand national pavilions, there's a little corner of Iraq.
0:32:48 > 0:32:52There's less than a week to go before the show opens to the public.
0:32:53 > 0:32:58The six artists will be working together for the first time.
0:32:58 > 0:33:02WHIRRING AND CLANKING
0:33:12 > 0:33:15'I have been here, like, three, four days.
0:33:15 > 0:33:17'It's almost done, actually. Yeah.'
0:33:21 > 0:33:25It's just a kind of replica of the video piece room
0:33:25 > 0:33:28and kind of really depressing, I want it to be,
0:33:28 > 0:33:30with the flickering lights.
0:33:31 > 0:33:34'What I like is the contrast between the clean, white wall office
0:33:34 > 0:33:41'kind of boring wall and the history, texture, randomness.'
0:33:42 > 0:33:44I'm just waiting now.
0:33:44 > 0:33:47A speaker needs to be fixed up and it's a bit slow because...
0:33:47 > 0:33:51I don't know. Like, people are not working a lot here
0:33:51 > 0:33:53and they have holidays.
0:33:53 > 0:33:54GLASS SHATTERS
0:33:55 > 0:34:00That's much better when you don't see this amount of metal.
0:34:05 > 0:34:09SHE SPEAKS IN ITALIAN
0:34:09 > 0:34:12For the curator, Mary Angela, it's been a labour of love.
0:34:12 > 0:34:14She's hands-on with everything,
0:34:14 > 0:34:17from the minutiae of installation to funding.
0:34:17 > 0:34:19There's not much to go round.
0:34:19 > 0:34:22This is our ladder, because we got it out of the garbage
0:34:22 > 0:34:23and we fixed it.
0:34:23 > 0:34:27It's broken, crappy, so we got our own ladder.
0:34:27 > 0:34:29- What? The ladder?- We fixed it.
0:34:33 > 0:34:37It's always, always a problem about the ladder.
0:34:38 > 0:34:40There's one ladder.
0:34:43 > 0:34:47Let's not talk about the problems, we'll never finish! OK, so...
0:34:49 > 0:34:51Ahmed hasn't arrived yet,
0:34:51 > 0:34:55so Azad Nanakeli is helping hang his pictures.
0:34:55 > 0:34:59A Kurd, like Walid, Azad now lives in Florence.
0:34:59 > 0:35:03He left Iraq after leaving art school in Baghdad in the mid-'70s,
0:35:03 > 0:35:05when Saddam's grip was tightening.
0:35:05 > 0:35:10Did that mean that all the artists who remained under Saddam, really,
0:35:10 > 0:35:15in one way or another, had to reflect the triumph of Saddam Hussein?
0:35:15 > 0:35:18In the same way that they did in Russia in Stalin's period?
0:35:18 > 0:35:20Is that what happened?
0:35:20 > 0:35:22I think it's not only Saddam Hussein.
0:35:22 > 0:35:26Most of the countries in the Middle East was like that.
0:35:26 > 0:35:30Governments politically control everything -
0:35:30 > 0:35:34the artists and other things - so that's what happened.
0:35:36 > 0:35:40Some artists, poets, others, they left Iraq and I'm one of them.
0:35:42 > 0:35:48We were without passports, without nothing and we had a chance.
0:35:48 > 0:35:51We worked very hard to be here.
0:35:51 > 0:35:53I'm glad to be here.
0:36:01 > 0:36:05When I was a child, there was this kind of faucet in my country,
0:36:05 > 0:36:06in my city.
0:36:06 > 0:36:12One of my...my... One of my nephews died with malaria, the sickness.
0:36:12 > 0:36:15The kind of water we have, this was just bad water.
0:36:22 > 0:36:27In Africa today, every minute, a person dies for want of clean water.
0:36:27 > 0:36:31WATER TRICKLES
0:36:45 > 0:36:46Back in Iraq now,
0:36:46 > 0:36:49do you think it can redeem itself from the days of Saddam?
0:36:49 > 0:36:52Right now, we have other problems,
0:36:52 > 0:36:55with also the way that they treat culture,
0:36:55 > 0:36:59because there is not enough possibility today to do it.
0:36:59 > 0:37:01With the religions and other things,
0:37:01 > 0:37:04they don't leave you to do what you want.
0:37:05 > 0:37:08I think most of the artists, they have no chance, really,
0:37:08 > 0:37:09to do a lot there.
0:37:11 > 0:37:14We hope, one day, there is more democracy in these countries,
0:37:14 > 0:37:17to have more chance for the artists to...
0:37:17 > 0:37:19to change something.
0:37:19 > 0:37:22We need it.
0:37:30 > 0:37:32The king of the dates.
0:37:34 > 0:37:36This has come from Basra.
0:37:36 > 0:37:38It's very delicious - do you want to eat?
0:37:38 > 0:37:40No.
0:37:40 > 0:37:44In Rome, especially, it's hard to find dates from Iraq.
0:37:51 > 0:37:54You know, Basra was the most famous region in the world
0:37:54 > 0:37:56for producing dates.
0:37:58 > 0:38:01And we had 30 millions of palms.
0:38:09 > 0:38:14But with the war, Iraq-Iran War, Saddam Hussein cut,
0:38:14 > 0:38:17destroyed 20 millions of palms.
0:38:21 > 0:38:25So it's a disaster with water and a disaster with the dates.
0:38:28 > 0:38:31Ali is making a pyramid of dates - some edible,
0:38:31 > 0:38:36some contaminated by salt water and some by uranium.
0:38:36 > 0:38:40In 1991, when the war was the Gulf War,
0:38:40 > 0:38:43the Americans used uranium
0:38:43 > 0:38:48and someone says, like, "This uranium, it goes to the earth."
0:38:48 > 0:38:52And the people were afraid to eat the dates.
0:38:55 > 0:38:57In the marshlands of the south,
0:38:57 > 0:39:00Basra was once the cultural capital of Iraq.
0:39:03 > 0:39:06It was known as the Venice of the Orient.
0:39:06 > 0:39:10In fact, Europeans said Basra was even more beautiful than Venice,
0:39:10 > 0:39:11because it was greener.
0:39:14 > 0:39:17It's strange cos this could just be round the corner
0:39:17 > 0:39:19here in Venice, couldn't it?
0:39:19 > 0:39:22- Yeah.- It looks exactly like... - Exactly. Exactly.
0:39:22 > 0:39:25If you want to see the real impact
0:39:25 > 0:39:30of the shortage of water, you go to Basra and see the tragedies there.
0:39:30 > 0:39:34People are deserting those areas because there is no water,
0:39:34 > 0:39:36no agriculture, no...nothing.
0:39:38 > 0:39:41Now, as Iraq is trying to regain its normal life,
0:39:41 > 0:39:43there is this tragedy with water.
0:39:54 > 0:39:58Walid is rushing to get his waterfall piece finished
0:39:58 > 0:40:00for the opening in three days' time.
0:40:00 > 0:40:06'Since I was young, I always remember to visit this Gali Ali Bag waterfall.
0:40:06 > 0:40:11'It was very ironic, because the image of the waterfall on the money, now that money
0:40:11 > 0:40:15'is helping the waterfall to carry on.' CHUCKLES
0:40:18 > 0:40:20BUZZING OF LIGHT SABRES
0:40:20 > 0:40:23Adel's work is now ready.
0:40:26 > 0:40:29I like for people to provoke their thoughts,
0:40:29 > 0:40:31and like when they come and they see this, and they...
0:40:31 > 0:40:35where is the water here. But then, then they see the landscape,
0:40:35 > 0:40:40like the image outside, which totally dried, then maybe they will think,
0:40:40 > 0:40:43"I will go back and see the video again."
0:40:54 > 0:40:58The most extraordinary of all their stories,
0:40:58 > 0:41:00is that of Halim Al Karim.
0:41:00 > 0:41:03He now lives between Denver and Dubai.
0:41:03 > 0:41:06But to escape conscription into the Iran Iraq war,
0:41:06 > 0:41:10he hid for nearly three years in a hole in the desert
0:41:10 > 0:41:13near the border of Iraq and Saudi Arabia.
0:41:13 > 0:41:18HALIM: I decide to hide in the desert
0:41:18 > 0:41:24and not to be part of this deceived politics
0:41:24 > 0:41:28and not to be part of that violence.
0:41:29 > 0:41:33And it impact on me in different ways
0:41:33 > 0:41:39but mainly it make me, this hard time,
0:41:39 > 0:41:45it make me appreciate more my human value.
0:41:45 > 0:41:52And I try to...to say or to explain,
0:41:52 > 0:41:55or to express this experience through my art.
0:41:56 > 0:41:59How did you survive that?
0:41:59 > 0:42:03I make a hole like two metres deep.
0:42:03 > 0:42:05I mix clay and grass and I build a dome.
0:42:06 > 0:42:11I survive there with the help of an old Iraqi woman.
0:42:12 > 0:42:15At that time, she was 75 years old.
0:42:16 > 0:42:19She was visiting me or providing me
0:42:19 > 0:42:23with water and food every two or three weeks.
0:42:24 > 0:42:28And because I study Sumerian civilisation -
0:42:28 > 0:42:31they believe in goddesses -
0:42:31 > 0:42:36and I thought, "I think that that woman,
0:42:36 > 0:42:38"she is the goddess of the desert."
0:42:43 > 0:42:49'I became as a new Sumerian. Always when I deal with women
0:42:49 > 0:42:52'they are just a goddess for me.'
0:42:53 > 0:42:55I think we just need to...
0:42:55 > 0:42:59'Of course, in your work many of these women are hidden by the veil.
0:42:59 > 0:43:05'You know, the reason that I use the veil to cover my photography...
0:43:06 > 0:43:12'it's nothing to do from the Arab or Muslim tradition of women
0:43:12 > 0:43:14'when they cover their face.
0:43:15 > 0:43:21'But I took this element to express the hidden inner,
0:43:21 > 0:43:26'the hidden characters, the hidden desires on human being.
0:43:28 > 0:43:30'We cover ourself'
0:43:30 > 0:43:33with layers and layers of...
0:43:33 > 0:43:36er, of veils.
0:43:44 > 0:43:47Ali Assaf's installation
0:43:47 > 0:43:50is about what he left behind in Iraq.
0:43:56 > 0:44:01After 1980, it became slowly like, you know,
0:44:01 > 0:44:05- someone by, um, force, by...- Yes.
0:44:05 > 0:44:08..took something from you and you don't want to lose this,
0:44:08 > 0:44:14and then you start to live in nostalgia, or in your past -
0:44:14 > 0:44:18why I wanted to go but why they don't let me go back.
0:44:18 > 0:44:21- So it becomes more and more... - Powerful?
0:44:21 > 0:44:25Yeah. And this is... Er, you cannot hear any more your parents,
0:44:25 > 0:44:26your brothers.
0:44:26 > 0:44:30You cannot write to them, they don't write to you.
0:44:30 > 0:44:33It was like someone tell you, "No, you don't do it, you don't do it."
0:44:33 > 0:44:34And you feel like a child.
0:44:34 > 0:44:37The mother said, "No, don't do it," and you want to do it.
0:44:37 > 0:44:43It become then the imagination and the, um...
0:44:43 > 0:44:44memories.
0:44:48 > 0:44:51When we came back after 20, 25 years,
0:44:51 > 0:44:54and you see a kid - your brother was a kid -
0:44:54 > 0:45:00now he is a father and big and old,
0:45:00 > 0:45:03and you don't know he's my brother or not, you know?
0:45:03 > 0:45:06- It's...- This is your brother behind you.- Yeah, there are four brothers.
0:45:06 > 0:45:08Four brothers, yeah.
0:45:08 > 0:45:12This one, I didn't see him
0:45:12 > 0:45:15because he died in 2003 when the American
0:45:15 > 0:45:18and English American went to Basra.
0:45:18 > 0:45:21He got some troubles with his health
0:45:21 > 0:45:24and there was no pharmacy, no medicine.
0:45:26 > 0:45:29This is my youngest sister,
0:45:29 > 0:45:32she became grandmother. ALAN CHUCKLES
0:45:32 > 0:45:38Yeah. This is my youngest brother, he became a grandfather.
0:45:40 > 0:45:42Me too - I became old.
0:45:45 > 0:45:47And this, is this about the pollution?
0:45:47 > 0:45:48These, um...
0:45:48 > 0:45:52- I see this is coming from above. - Yeah, yeah.
0:45:52 > 0:45:58In 1991 when they start to, um, bomb Iraq,
0:45:58 > 0:46:02they saw that the water was like very dark,
0:46:02 > 0:46:05raining like oil drops.
0:46:18 > 0:46:23The artist who tackles the war and occupation most head-on is Halim.
0:46:26 > 0:46:30His take on water is strikingly different from the others.
0:46:31 > 0:46:34The Nation's Laundry, what's behind that?
0:46:34 > 0:46:36It's about Western governments -
0:46:36 > 0:46:40always they try to find solution for their problems
0:46:40 > 0:46:48in the East. They wash their dirty clothes in our life.
0:46:48 > 0:46:51Our friends the American, they came to Iraq and they say,
0:46:51 > 0:46:54"We'd like, or we will help you
0:46:54 > 0:46:58"to liberate yourself from the... that regime."
0:46:59 > 0:47:01And we welcomed them.
0:47:01 > 0:47:05But we discover there is a hidden agenda...
0:47:05 > 0:47:06Oil?
0:47:06 > 0:47:07- Many things.- And yet...
0:47:07 > 0:47:10We don't need to talk about this. It's too obvious.
0:47:10 > 0:47:14I am trying to tell them that any time you want to wash your dirty...
0:47:14 > 0:47:19- Your dirty linen.- ..laundry in our country, always we will resist.
0:47:20 > 0:47:23In art, we will resist you.
0:47:23 > 0:47:25And blood to blood, we will resist you.
0:47:25 > 0:47:32And if we resist you, maybe one day you will stop doing this crime
0:47:32 > 0:47:35and then you become more beautiful.
0:47:35 > 0:47:38You will be like my goddess.
0:47:39 > 0:47:43Do you go back to Iraq from time to time?
0:47:43 > 0:47:44I never left Iraq.
0:47:44 > 0:47:47Physically, I left Iraq in 1991...
0:47:47 > 0:47:50but, um...
0:47:52 > 0:47:53..my soul is still there.
0:47:55 > 0:47:56I'm still there.
0:47:57 > 0:48:03I left Iraq not because I was scared to be killed.
0:48:03 > 0:48:07No, I left Iraq to tell our story. Iraqis' story.
0:48:09 > 0:48:11And now I'm telling it.
0:48:18 > 0:48:22But the work itself is more haunting than accusatory.
0:48:22 > 0:48:25What's interesting about all these artists
0:48:25 > 0:48:29is that their work suggests rather than tells.
0:48:29 > 0:48:33There is obviously a big political dimension to the Iraqi show,
0:48:33 > 0:48:35and yet it's politics with a small "P".
0:48:35 > 0:48:38I think that what you hope to get from art, also,
0:48:38 > 0:48:41is something that you can't get from the news,
0:48:41 > 0:48:46so you have more of an emotional understanding.
0:48:46 > 0:48:50It's very easy for political work to become too close to reportage,
0:48:50 > 0:48:53and I think what impressed me... it's very imaginative.
0:48:53 > 0:48:58It's not the expected message that's been delivered in a predictable way.
0:48:58 > 0:49:04There's work that...really, it takes a leap, and takes risks.
0:49:08 > 0:49:11It's interesting, isn't it, that Ahmed Alsoudani
0:49:11 > 0:49:15is also showing alongside Jeff Koons.
0:49:15 > 0:49:19He's showing at the Palazzo Grassi, which is a private collection
0:49:19 > 0:49:22featuring a lot of the best-known artists in the world,
0:49:22 > 0:49:26but six months ago, I bet most of their curators had never heard of them.
0:49:26 > 0:49:31It shows just how quickly reputations can be made in the contemporary art world.
0:49:34 > 0:49:38We haven't seen Ahmed Alsoudani yet at the Iraqi pavilion,
0:49:38 > 0:49:41so we're going upmarket here, upriver.
0:50:06 > 0:50:10Hello. How are you? Thanks for coming.
0:50:10 > 0:50:14Have you been yet to the Iraqi pavilion?
0:50:14 > 0:50:16Yeah, I went a few hours ago.
0:50:16 > 0:50:19I went over there, check the place, and it was really interesting.
0:50:19 > 0:50:23- It's quite a contrast between here and there!- Huge! Yeah.
0:50:23 > 0:50:27Of the artists here, who do you like and admire?
0:50:27 > 0:50:29Most of the artists, probably.
0:50:29 > 0:50:34All of them except me are big names and very established artists. So I really admire a lot of them.
0:50:34 > 0:50:37How did you get in here? I haven't worked it out yet.
0:50:37 > 0:50:40- Ohh.- Other than your talent, what else brought you here?
0:50:40 > 0:50:47Well, as you know, this collection is a part of the Pinault Foundation.
0:50:48 > 0:50:52So, Francois Pinault is one of my fans.
0:50:52 > 0:50:54A most important collector.
0:50:57 > 0:51:00I have to go tomorrow to the Iraqi pavilion...
0:51:00 > 0:51:01for the opening.
0:51:01 > 0:51:06Back at the house, time for preparations is nearly up.
0:51:13 > 0:51:16The critics are about to arrive to view the show.
0:51:20 > 0:51:24- WOMAN:- There's, again, Ali Assaf, who's our interpreter...
0:51:24 > 0:51:28It's a timely moment for insights from the Arab world.
0:51:31 > 0:51:35This picture is taken from a Mesopotamian batik.
0:51:35 > 0:51:40So, Walid...so you have brought Iraq to Venice?
0:51:40 > 0:51:41That's right.
0:51:41 > 0:51:44All these rooms here tell this story of the tragedy of water
0:51:44 > 0:51:46in Iraq, and in the whole of the Middle East.
0:51:46 > 0:51:51You go from one room to another and you're still in the same environment.
0:51:51 > 0:51:52It really works, I think.
0:51:52 > 0:51:55It's nice to see this way,
0:51:55 > 0:51:57and each artist will have a different approach
0:51:57 > 0:52:00and maybe there is a complementary effort
0:52:00 > 0:52:04to make a whole picture of our theme of water.
0:52:17 > 0:52:21It's June 2nd, and the whole Biennale opens to the public.
0:52:21 > 0:52:24The Iraqi pavilion, too, is open for business.
0:52:24 > 0:52:28- Full. I'm sorry.- OK. - That was the limit.
0:52:28 > 0:52:32Sorry. People will come down, and then you can go back up.
0:52:32 > 0:52:35They're afraid that this building might collapse,
0:52:35 > 0:52:38so they're stopping them coming in at the door.
0:52:39 > 0:52:43- Every time I see you, you've got a glass in your hand. - It's the time to drink.
0:52:43 > 0:52:45After all the stress, you have to chill out.
0:52:49 > 0:52:53When you look at it from outside, for me, the home video I don't want to get in.
0:52:53 > 0:52:56BUZZING OF LIGHT SABRES
0:52:59 > 0:53:01How did you make it...
0:53:01 > 0:53:05- That's the trick.- ..when they... - That's the trick.
0:53:05 > 0:53:07That's the trick? Good trick.
0:53:07 > 0:53:14I'm fighting, actually, against many of my compatriots, who believe Iraq has gone, you know?
0:53:14 > 0:53:15I don't believe that.
0:53:15 > 0:53:19Do you think in next year's Biennale, or perhaps the one after it,
0:53:19 > 0:53:23- that the artists who are representing Iraq here may actually live in Iraq?- Correct.
0:53:23 > 0:53:26Always remember, this is a pilot project.
0:53:26 > 0:53:29I'm sure that in three or four Biennales,
0:53:29 > 0:53:33we'll have Iraqi artists who live in Iraq and who'll and thrive in Iraq.
0:53:33 > 0:53:37Kids today, unheard of, they do something amazing.
0:53:40 > 0:53:46This is very optimistic. It makes everybody proud that Iraq is coming back to the international arena,
0:53:46 > 0:53:52that artists are making their footprints on a festival like this in Venice.
0:53:52 > 0:53:54This is a great beginning.
0:54:14 > 0:54:19It's hard not to feel humbled before a nation that has suffered so much.
0:54:23 > 0:54:26But if art can't bathe the wounds of war,
0:54:26 > 0:54:31maybe it can do something to help recover what's been lost.
0:54:49 > 0:54:53Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd
0:54:53 > 0:54:56E-mail subtitling@bbc.co.uk