There have been protests against a work of art installed at the Berlin Biennale with well-known photos of torture scenes from Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq. In the Rieckhallen of the Museum Hamburger Bahnhof, the French artist Jean-Jacques Lebel used photos taken by US soldiers of humiliation and torture of Iraqi prisoners to create a labyrinth of terror with large-format excerpts that hang on the walls and in the room as canvas-sized prints. Before entering the separate room, which cannot be seen from the outside, visitors are made aware of the gruesome depictions.
The lender of a work, Rijin Sahakian, opposed the work in an open letter co-signed by 15 artists. It states, among other things, that the Biennale used “photos of illegally detained and brutally treated Iraqi bodies” under the US occupation to exhibit the work. These would be used for commercial purposes without the consent of the victims and without the participation of the Iraqi artists participating in the biennial. Their works were installed next to the controversial work without their knowledge.
The Biennale pointed out on Wednesday that the two Iraqi artists had been offered other locations for their works. One work has already been moved, and talks are still being held with the artist about the second work. Curator Kader Attia is preparing a statement for the Biennale.
US troops abused Iraqi prisoners in Abu Ghraib prison. The scandal became known through the first publications in 2004. During the legal workup in the years that followed, there were imprisonment and disciplinary sanctions for numerous US soldiers.
The twelfth version of the Berlin Biennale entitled “Still Present!” shows works by 70 art collectives and artists at six different locations until September 18th. The Berlin Biennale claims to stand for committed art with a political profile “that addresses the pressing issues of the present”.
Info Berlin Biennale Open Letter Info about the work
