Let’s talk about Iraq: Traveling exhibition prompts campus curiosity

A striking visual component is hitched to the back of the “It Is What It Is: Conversations About Iraq” RV. Artist Jeremy Deller and guests speakers displayed the remains of a car left over from a bombing that occurred back in March 2007 in Baghdad.

The traveling exhibition made its first campus stop at VCU Friday in the University Student Commons Theater. Immediately after a discussion with Deller and company, viewers moved outside to view the car and participate in conversations with others or the guests themselves.

“It’s those side conversations I really look forward to,” Deller said.

Jonathan Harvey, Esam Pasha and Nato Thompson were among the guest speakers Friday.

Harvey, currently serving in the U.S. Army Reserve, served in Iraq as a platoon sergeant. Pasha, who was born in Iraq, is a translator, artist and journalist working for such organizations as the British Embassy within Baghdad, the Coalition in Iraq, the 101st Airborne and the Florida National Guard. Thompson is part of the curatorial team for Creative Time, the nonprofit organization presenting the exhibition.

The speaker’s experiences and first hand knowledge of Iraqi culture were used as tools to promote dialogue between the American public on the social, cultural and political conditions in Iraq.

The project and conversation has spread beyond The New Museum in New York City, as Deller and fellow experts made their way to The National Mall in Washington, D.C. Thursday.

“It’s been great talking to people out on the street,” Pasha said. “There are a lot of inspiring questions.”

The work by Hope Ginsburg, a member of VCU’s faculty in the art foundation program with an appointment of painting and printmaking, enabled the project to come to VCU.

Ginsburg established connections with curator Nato Thompson when she and a group of students collaborated on the “Democracy in America” project last semester in New York City.

During this outreach Ginsburg became interested in bringing the then developing “It Is What It Is” project to VCU.

Ginsburg selected sculpture and extended
media majors Rebecca Henderson and Beranger LeFranc to accommodate Deller and the panel when they arrived in Richmond.

Henderson and LeFranc jumped on the opportunity to get face time with the established artist. They were interested in the contemporary style of art Deller was promoting.

“This kind of public art practice is important to do,” LeFranc said. “I think this is where art is going.”

Henderson and LeFranc worked closely with Deller and the guest speakers. They said they developed their own opinions-not just on the means of presentation but the objective of familiarizing themselves with Iraqi culture.

The experts were clear this was not an anti-war project but a social event aimed to get a real idea of the cultural conditions in Iraq as opposed to forming a skewed reality from other unreliable media sources.

“The real politics of this project are in the mechanisms of delivery,” Thompson said. “It’s the how.”

Deller and fellow speakers are scheduled to travel to major cities including stops in Los Angeles and New York City. “It Is What It Is: Conversations About Iraq” conversations with the public, interviews and schedule of stops can be found at conversationsaboutiraq.org. The site is uploaded to coordinate with the group’s most recent experiences and travels.