Event 

Ruya Lab #2: artist Francis Alys gives presentation in Baghdad

Ruya Foundation invited the artist Francis Alys to Iraq. In Baghdad, he gave a presentation of his work to an audience of fifty professional artists and art students from the two art colleges there. He presented the film Reel-Unreel (2011), a project shot in Kabul in which children were asked to play with an old…
Interview 

Asmaa Alanbari on identity, culture and the body.

Asmaa Alanbari is an Iraqi born visual artist and creative director based in London. Her work deals with identity and cross cultural dialogue through the painting and photography of the human body. She directs public art events and projects, such as art exhibitions and other interactive cultural events. One example is a program called “Self…
Interview 

Writer Hassan Blasim on magic, horror, and his journey on foot to Europe.

Hassan Blasim is an Iraqi writer and filmmaker, who’s series of short stories The Iraqi Christ won the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize in 2014. He speaks to Ruya about being a film student in Baghdad at the time of the UN sanctions, shooting his controversial film The Wounded Camera, his journey on foot to Europe, and his upcoming…