Who are you before they ask: “who are you”?
How did you survive the events of the world to get here?
Stand in your corridor and give me your passport
Show me your eyes, smile
Thank you – Fares Haram for iPass, 2015.
In the dark projection room of an arts centre in Baghdad, a slideshow of portrait photographs is projected against the wall. The same man appears, dressed as an individual of different nationalities. He is a businessman, in a grey suit and purple tie; a Greek Orthodox Priest; a Tibetan monk; a Kamikaze pilot and a Mexican in a sombrero. Sometimes, he is dressed as recognisable political figures, like Hitler or Gandhi. A woman also appears wearing a niqab. A voice speaks over the projection “I no longer know in which airport the world resides”.
Hussein Shabeeb, still from iPass, 2015. Courtesy of the artist.
Through this new video installation, the Belgium-based Iraqi artist Hussein Shabeeb, explores the role of identity and migration. The voiceover is a poem by the Iraqi poet Fares Haram and was commissioned especially for the piece. The artist questions what it is, in a passport, that will let an individual inside a country.
The man in the photographs is Shabeeb’s friend, the actor Duraid Abbas. Shabeeb explains that the project took two years in the making because all of Abbas’ “looks” were real. He grew a moustache, a beard, cut his hair, grew it and so on, because he wanted the face to look authentic.
Hussein Shabeeb, still from iPass, 2015. Courtesy of the artist.
Hussein Shabeeb, still from iPass, 2015. Courtesy of the artist.
Hussein Shabeeb, still from iPass, 2015. Courtesy of the artist.
Hussein Shabeeb, still from iPass, 2015. Courtesy of the artist.
iPass is based on Shabeeb’s own experience, as an asylum seeker to Europe. Originally from Dora, Baghdad, Hussein arrived in Belgium in 2007. Living in Antwerp, he works as an independent photographer and graphic designer.
The piece is a two-year collaboration of artists, actors and writers across borders and cities. The artists all met as students in Baghdad, but today, Shabeeb works from Antwerp, Abbas from Rotterdam and Haram is now in Najaf. The project producer, Hayder Helo is also in Belgium. Polish artist Monica Borys worked with them on the proposal for the project. This reflects the challenges of a fragile art scene in Baghdad. According to several within the artistic community, around thirty young artists from the city are known to have left the country this past summer.
Hussein Shabeeb, still from iPass, 2015. Courtesy of the artist.
Such collaborations, achieved by working remotely, are common among Iraqi artists, as a result of migration, or even the security situation for artists based in the same city. The group of satirical cartoonists Daafish, which Ruya spoke to last month, are peppered between Erbil, Baghdad and cities in Turkey. They produce their work through Skype meetings.
Shabeeb has come to Baghdad especially to show his work. He explains that he wants to tell his story in his home city. It was on display at an independent arts centre, Burj Babel for Media Development. His plan is to commission different poets and writers native to various cities across the world, to address this same issue of passports and identity, in the same format.