Michael Rakowitz was born in New York out of a Jewish-Iraqi family of refugees
Photo credit: LT archive
In the Epic of Gilgamesh, the 4000 year-old poem from Mesopotamia, king Gilgamesh, puts on new robes and a sash after heroically slaying a monster. That’s when the goddess of love and war, Ishtar sees him and falls in love. Ishtar was the Queen of Heaven and the goddess of the Eanna temple at the city of Uruk, located in Iraq today.
Since ancient times, cloth and objects, such as a sash, a rug or a statue, have been symbols of civilisation, preserving narratives to future generations. When a society loses such items, the collective memory they represent is lost.
Descendant of an Iraqi Jewish family forced to flee their country, American artist Michael Rakowitz uses contemporary materials from Arabic culture such as food packaging and newspapers to reconstruct ancient objects that Iraq lost during the war.
His installation “The Invisible Enemy Should Not Exist” brings back the archaelogical artifacts that were looted from the National Museum of Iraq, Baghdad or destroyed in the violent period after the US invaded the country in April 2003. With the help of more than 30 assistants, Rakowitz recreates these lost artifacts using materials from waste that strike a Western viewer as a surprise because of their Arabic lettering and distinctive brands.
On the upper floor of the Frac Lorraine – a contemporary art centre in Metz – Rakowitz invites his audience to take a look at his monumental panels; reappearances of the destroyed relief sculptures of the ancient Assyrian Palace of Nimrud (present day Mosul). Resembling wall carpets, they are made from layered patchworks of foodstuff packaging such as Maggi hallal chicken soup, Iraqi date syrup cans, halal raspberry jelly dessert, chewing gum and sage tea.