Walid Siti - New Babylon
About the work of the artist in relation to his Iraqi-Kurdish origin. With photos of his installation at the 56th Venice Biennale 2015 and earlier works.
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Mosaic of Little World. 2015 (Detail)
Wall based installation, barbed wire, thread & nails
300 x 300 x 5 cm
Today’s reality of globalization and the legacy of post-colonial politics had a major impact in shaping the treacherous development of the region. The landscape and its people have been engulfed in a tide of political unrest, war, ethnic and sectarian violence that threatens the inherited foundations of social and cultural coexistence and tolerance.
The work is a fictional floating map, a two-layered intricate structure comprised of smaller segments. The uncompromising harshness of barbed wire acts as a tool of division and bounding against the fine white threaded background.
Through the use of opposing properties of these materials, I tried to describe a world, riddled with complexities, devastation and despair. The barbed wire is a metaphor that illustrates as a historical and contemporary symbol of control and exerting power. It serves the cruel imposition of a reality marked with confinement, exclusion, expansion, and violent confrontation; the many signs of our times.
Walid Siti
London, March, 2015
© Photo: Haupt & Binder
About the work of the artist in relation to his Iraqi-Kurdish origin. With photos of his installation at the 56th Venice Biennale 2015 and earlier works.