When three Iraqi artists were invited to exhibit their work at this year’s Berlin Biennale, the organising themes – decolonisation and repair – promised to give voice to a subject the trio understood more than most.
Each had grown up in the shadow of America’s 2003 invasion, and their art now wrestles with its aftermath. A film by Layth Kareem explored community trauma and healing. Sajjad Abbas brought a banner emblazoned with a picture of his eye, which he had once hung opposite Baghdad’s heavily fortified Green Zone, meant to symbolise the Iraqi experience of watching the $2tn occupation.
