Hijacking Mesopotamian Heritage

The last time I attended Babylon International Festival was in 2000. Then, it was a celebration of the world’s arts and culture and a revival of a civilization’s history. There performed various Arab, Asian, European, American and African artists, dancing and playing traditional and contemporary music, leaving Iraqis enjoy precious times as they endured the hardships of the Iran-Iraq war and the 12-year international sanctions.

But today, seven years after it was canceled due to the US-led invasion, the festival opened with failure and disastrous atmosphere. No dancing, no singing! Nothing but two badly-performed plays on globalization and hating the United States. The reasons, according to The New York Times, were religion and politics!

The Times reported that the deputy governor of the Babil province, Sadiq al-Muhanna, “declared the ban on music and dance… which he called offensive to Muslims during religious ceremonies for Imam Sadiq.”

This news came in like a lightning strike to me. It is really sad that religion hijacked the entire Iraqi society, whose culture and art battled and survived dictators, wars, barbarians and invasions throughout history.

Iraq was a country where culture and arts met and flourished. It was a country that gave birth to great artists whose imprints were recorded for thousands of years across the globe. But today it’s a country marked by religion and only religion. Instead of reviving our glorious history, the leaders of the new Iraq are forcing that form of submission. They coat Imams’ graves with pure gold; they block streets for weeks in celebration of death or birth anniversaries of those Imams and now they cancel the entire basis of the Mesopotamian civilization: appreciation of art and culture.

We have become worse than the most conservative countries in the Middle East. Even in Saudi Arabia, where men and women are flogged if found mingling with each other, people celebrate their culture by dancing and performing in national festivals, and they don’t even have Mesopotamian heritage to revive.

My heart breaks for Iraq. It makes me gravely sad to see how religion has become the winner in the former secular country that I remember.

I dream of going back. Every day. But the Mullahs hijacked my country and turned it into a bigger mosque, where people cannot do anything but pray to deaf ears. I’m afraid the dream is shattering. I’m collecting the pieces but not sure how long this will last.

Light at the End of the Tunnel

Nothing in this world is better than seeing my beautiful Baghdad comes back to life after years of horrific occupation and terrorism. The bad news is still flowing everyday from Baghdad but some good news is flowing as well.

Lately, I have been fond of reading a blog by a fellow Iraqi blogger called “Sami” whose blog posts prove that his love to Baghdad and all of Iraq is bigger than anyone can imagine.

One of Sami’s posts that moved me the most is titled “Lightening.” In it, he expresses the positive attitude that he took in thinking about the future of Iraq. He took a walk in Al-Mutanabi Street, one of Baghdad’s oldest neighborhoods where arts and culture always meet. The things he saw were tangible. He saw a revival of life, a definace of the violence that crippled the very same culture for years.

My eyes became tearful as I saw the pictures he took. It reminded me that hope still exists and that some day homecoming may happen. Thank you, Sami for those great posts.

Arabesque

Last night, I attended a concert performed by Iraq’s Maqam singer, Farida. The concert was part of Arabesque Festival: Arts of the Arab World which is organized by the John F. Kennedy Center from February 23 to March 15, 2009.

The below video was taken by my friend Omar.

blog.bassamsebti@gmail.com

Atlantis the Palm Opening in Dubai

Amazing!

http://video.google.com/googleplayer.swf?docid=3238246586593027672&hl=en&fs=true

A Treasure in Baghdad

Much like its poets, Iraq’s painters and sculptors are among the best in the Arab world, and some of them are world-class. The first generation, which became active in the 1940s, included Faiq Hasan and Ismail al-Shaykhali. Their paintings are figurative works in the impressionist style. Other important artists of this generation are Jawad Salim, Nouri al-Rawi, Mahmoud Sabri, and Tariq Madhloum. Jawad Salim was deeply influenced by the cubist style of Spanish artist Pablo Picasso, as well as by ancient Mesopotamian art and the Soviet style known as socialist realism. To a younger generation, active since the late 1950s, belong painters Diya al-Azzawi and Hamid al-Attar.

Baghdad is rich in open-air sculptures and monuments designed by many of these great artists. Many of these sculptures and monuments are dedicated to the Iraqi people and the rich history of the country.

Today’s treasure is Jawad Salim (1920–1961), a pioneering Iraqi artist who died prematurely at the age of 41 and the sculptor of the most famous monument in Baghdad, The Monument of Liberty.

Born into a family of painters, Jawad Salim came from Mosul. After studying under his father, Salim traveled to Paris and Rome to train from 1938 to 1940. He worked in the Baghdad Archeological Museum during World War II and became interested in sculpture. Salim continued his studies at the Slade School of Art in London from 1946 to 1949. After returning to Iraq, he was given the position of head of the sculpture department and the Institute of Fine Arts and was commissioned to create the Monument to Liberty by the newly established Iraqi Republic in 1958. Salim also worked as a graphic artist and illustrator.

The Monument of Liberty, one of Baghdad’s most recognizable icons, adorns the Tahrir Square at the heart of Baghdad’s eastern bank. The monument was to become a metaphor for republican Iraq’s struggle for justice and freedom. Although many other monuments were commissioned and erected in Saddam’s era, none were able to eclipse or capture the aura of Nusb Al-Tahrir. It has also become a common motif for many Iraqi and Arab poets.

In 1950, the Iraqi artist Faiq Hassan (1914–1992) founded The Pioneer Society, paving the way for several art collectives in the country, including the Baghdad Modern Art Group, founded by Salim in 1951. The latter soon emerges as the most influential art movement in the country. Debates within the group on the synthesis of tradition and modernity spark critical theories that influence several generations of artists. Artistic debate in Baghdad—and Beirut—includes not only artists but also critics, poets, writers, and architects. Their influence is felt in intellectual circles all over the Arab world.