The looting of Iraq’s antiquities in the wake of the 2003 US invasion, the destruction of Mosul by ISIS in 2015, the enduring consequences of colonialism and migration, as well as the striking commonalities in humanity’s cultural heritage and the urgent need for its recovery, are some of the key themes running through the work of Iraqi-American artist Michael Rakowitz.
As Nikolas Zois reports, from May 12 to October 31, a selection of his pieces will be exhibited alongside Mesopotamian antiquities at the Acropolis Museum in a show titled “Allspice – Michael Rakowitz and Ancient Cultures” and co-organized with the cultural organization NEON.
Born in the United States in 1973 into a family of Jewish descent, Rakowitz began his project-in-progress “The invisible enemy should not exist” in 2007. In 2018, the series expanded to include a group of colorful panels inspired by the reliefs that once adorned the Assyrian palace of Nimrud, located in present-day Mosul.
Constructed in the 9th century BC, the palace was excavated in the 19th century by European and American missions, with many of its finds now housed in institutions such as the British Museum and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. The palace’s remaining structures were destroyed by ISIS.
The exhibition at the Acropolis Museum’s temporary exhibitions gallery will feature 48 of Rakowitz’s works, many of which recreate the winged, bearded male figures that once decorated the palace at Nimrud. To construct these pieces, Rakowitz used cardboard, food packaging from northern Iraq, clippings from Arabic-English newspapers and museum labels. These vivid panels will be on loan to Greece from private collections, institutions and the artist’s own archive.
The artworks will be accompanied by 13 antiquities, 12 of which originate from ancient Mesopotamia and date back to the 3rd and 2nd millennia BC. These include mostly vessels and figurines, among them a fragment of a stone vessel depicting a male figure tending cattle (ca. 2900 BC), and a clay mold for a bearded male figurine holding grain and wearing a hat (Early Dynastic Period), among others.
The 12 Mesopotamian antiquities are housed at the Institute for the Study of Ancient Cultures at the University of Chicago. Their loan to NEON for the Athens show was approved by the Greek Culture Ministry’s Central Archaeological Council. It also approved the loan of a bearded male head from Cyprus (480-400 BC) from the Museum of Cycladic Art. In addition, 24 volumes of the Chicago Assyrian Dictionary will be on display.
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