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In conjunction with the 18tb Singapore International Film Festival (SIFF) in April 2005, Iraqi photographer
and filmmaker Ziad Tut·key Al-Ani held an exhibition at the Goethe Institut entitled Emigration to tbe
Ruins. The exhibition featured 40 images, from 2004, of homeless Iraqis living in abandoned government
buildings after the fall of Saddam Hussein.
Based in Baghdad, ttying to sutvive in a countty besieged by endless injustice, Ziad Turkey's life has
followed a radically different trajectoty from the Iraqi writers and artists who left the countty during Saddam
Hussein's rule.
In an introduction to his exhibition, Ziad Turkey Al-Ani wrote: "Inside these ruins that were once
'respected' buildings that brought fear, numbness, caution, and disgust at some times, and hypocrisy at other
times, there were prison cells, interrogation rooms, meetings rooms, and other rooms for telling jokes. And
Ziad Turkey At-Ani, AI..Jumhoorya Newspaper, Iraq, 2004. All photographs: Courtesy of the Artist.
these rooms always had photos of the one, the only, the hard-headed, the great. Today, these photos are not
hung anymore and that name is not as it was. Inside those buildings, I found those who use documents and
papers as beds, and those who built their little kitchens in small prison cells ... I found children playing in a
bureau of the Baath Party, and a kid who flatters his girl in the director's room. To those who deserve
shelters; to the eyes of their children, I grant these photos."
As a student of theater arts in the Fine Arts Institute of Baghdad, from 1980 to 1986, Ziad Turkey Al-
Ani took to photography by taking pictures of theatrical spaces. His "big experience" came in 1986 when,
during his militaty service, he was sent to the front as a photographer to document the war between Iraq and
Iran. Since turning professional at the end of the war in 1988, Ziad Turkey Al-Ani has exhibited frequently in
the Middle East, but Emigration to the Ruins was his first exhibition in Southeast Asia.
From 1990 to 1994, Ziad Turkey Al-Ani pursued his B.A. in cinematic arts at the Fine Arts Academy in
Baghdad. Since then, the 41-year-old has pursued various projects in cinema and theater. In 2003, when 32-
year-old director Oday Rasheed decided to make the first uncensored feature film shot in post-Saddam
Hussein's Iraq, Ziad Turkey AI-Ani was the director of photography. Making its Asian premiere at the SIFF,
Underexposure offers an important view of the faceless victims caught up between the politics of a dictator
buoyed by oil money and the corporate interests of the United States of America. The 65-minute film was
voted Best Film at the Silver Screen Awards-its first major international honor.
Zhuang Wubin recently spoke with Ziad Turkey Al-Ani, who was guest at the 18th Singapore Inter-
national Film Festival about his work and the state of photography in post-Saddam Iraq.
JULY/AUGUST 2005
50 ASIAN ART NEWS
Ziad Turkey AI-Ani, Composition, Iraq, 2004.
ing w ith commercial primers, they w ill cast not that big, they may be convinced to pur- people. Peop le are no t always respo nsible
the images onro film. With my digital files, sue digital technology in this manner. fo r t.he aCLio ns o f the governmenr. As m y
I ··cast" th em o nro films in rhe traditional exhib itio n is a cu ltural activ ity, I prefer to
darkroom as though I am making contact What do y ou f eel about ex hibiting in respo nd to the people o f Singapo re.
prints. Therefore, L can still enjo y the psy- Singapore, a country that has sup- After all, this is a human project and
cho logy o f developing my prints in the ported A m e rica 's war on terror? rhere is no issue to show it to people with
wet darkroom. When analog photographers different perspectives. In fact, many people
see th at the difference in printo ut qualiry We ha ve to differentiate betw een an act in I raq are suppo rtive of the war because
between d igital and traditional formats is o f th e government and an act o f th e they w anted Saddam removed, even at such
Ziad Turkey AI-Ani, A L e s s o n in Life, Iraq, 2004. Zlad Turkey AI-Ani, Kitche n, Iraq , 2004.
JULY/AUGUST 2005
ASIAN ART NEWS 53