Past Event
The Iraqi-American artist Michael Rakowitz talks to former Whitechapel Gallery Director Iwona Blazwick on ideas of loss, memory and history in his conceptual and politically driven work.
Ranging from sculpture and installation to participatory events, his complex and involved projects explore his the west’s relationship with Iraq. With an interest in the interaction between artist, public and artwork, Rakowitz’s inspirations range from the cultural specificity of architectural structures, to food’s potential to bridge divides.
Rakowitz’s work is included in the third display of the Barjeel Art Foundation Collection: Imperfect Chronology – Mapping the Contemporary I.
Michael Rakowitz (b. 1973, Great Neck, NY) has shown in venues including dOCUMENTA(13), The Museum of Modern Art, MoMA/PS1, MassMOCA, Castello di Rivoli, the 10th Istanbul Biennial, Sharjah Biennial 8, Tirana Biennale, and Transmediale 05.
He is the recipient of the 2012 Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation Biennial Award, a 2008 Creative Capital Grant for a collaboration with Emna Zghal, the Sharjah Biennial Jury Award, a 2006 New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship Grant in Architecture and Environmental Structures, the 2003 Dena Foundations Award, and the 2002 Design 21 Grand Prix from UNESCO.
