Selections from Dafatir
Contemporary Iraqi Book Art
Showing in the Open Book Lobby Gallery
February 17 to March 11, 2006

Minnesota Center for Book Arts is proud to partner with Carleton College to bring the exhibition Dafatir: Contemporary Iraqi Book Art to Minnesota. The word "Dafatir" translates to "notebook" in Arabic. Dafatir the exhibition highlights the flourishing book arts in modern day Iraq and celebrates the persistence of the artistic impulse in a nation troubled by tyranny and war. Curated by Nada Shabout, an Iraqi art historian who teaches at the University of North Texas, the exhibition presents experiments in the book art format by seventeen Iraqi artists spanning three generations. All drawn from the collection of London-based Iraqi artist Dia al-Azzawi, the works embody many approaches to style, materials and content. The works range from radiantly colored abstract paintings realized in three-dimensions to vessels of visual/verbal poetry to material and metaphorical responses to contemporary events. The book, reconceived as a sculptural object, also connects back to rich Arab traditions in calligraphy and manuscripts.

Associated Events
Artist Talk by Visiting Iraqi Artist, Mohammed al-Shammarey
Saturday, February 4, 1 to 3 pm
Marshall Fields Performance Hall, 2nd Floor of Open Book
al-Shammarey will discuss his creative process as well as working as a contemporary artist in Iraq.

Screening of About Baghdad (2004), a film by Sinon Antoon
Tuesday, March 7
7 pm, Marshall Fields Performance Hall, 2nd Floor of Open Book
In July 2003, Sinan Antoon, an exiled Iraqi writer and poet, returned to Baghdad to see what had become of his city after wars, sanctions, decades of oppression and violence, and now occupation. Antoon takes viewers on a journey exploring what Iraqis think and feel about the post-war situation and the complex relationship between the US and Iraq.