Institute of Contemporary Arts

Proposal for Iraq War Memorial, Symbolic Transposition of effects of war in Iraq to the U.S. and England: 10 Downing St., Parliament, U.S. Capitol and the White House [detail], 2007, Sam Durant.

Memorial to the Iraq War

The ICA has invited 26 artists from around the world to make proposals for a memorial to the Iraq War. These memorials address topics such as the invasion and occupation of Iraq, the country's slide into civil war, the deaths of soldiers and civilians, and the conflict's relation to global jihadism and the War on Terror. The intention is not to find a definitive memorial to a war - a difficult task at any time, and especially in the context of an ongoing conflict. Instead the exhibition explores different views of the Iraq War, and different perspectives on what can or should be memorialised.

Memorial to the Iraq War features work by Lida Abdul, Marc Bijl, Christoph Büchel, Tony Chakar, Yael Davids, Jeremy Deller, Sam Durant, Chris Evans, Matias Faldbakken, Michael Patterson-Carver with Harrell Fletcher, Liam Gillick, Natascha Sadr Haghighian, Iman Issa, Sanja Ivekovic, Erik van Lieshout, Nate Lowman, Michaela Meise, Roman Ondák, Khalil Rabah, Collier Schorr, Vahid Sharifian, Sean Snyder, Jalal Toufic, Klaus Weber, and Keith Wilson. The proposals include sketches, models and videos, and some proposals will be realised in the galleries in larger form. The ICA's location on the Mall makes this venue especially appropriate for an exhibition of this sort: in the heart of Westminster and in the area of London most dense with monuments.

Memorial to the Iraq War is made possible with the support of the Henry Moore Foundation, the Mondriaan Foundation and Office for Contemporary Art Norway.

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