Recollecting Iraq
Selma Yonus and Basim Mardan in conversation with Andreas Røst
Stavanger Art Museum invites you to an evening dedicated to the history and memory of Iraq, featuring poet Selma Yonus and author Basim Mardan.
Yonus and Mardan will each present short speeches, talks, or recollections about their lives in Iraq and as part of its diaspora, before engaging in a conversation with Andreas Røst, Education Officer (PhD).
The event reflects on Iraqi-American artist Michael Rakowitz’s exhibition Proxies for Poets and Palaces.
The event will be in English.
The audience is invited to visit the exhibition before the conversation (between 17:00 and 18:00. The conversation begins at 18:00).
In the exhibition Proxies for Poets and Palaces, Iraqi American artist Michael Rakowitz draws upon his Arab-Jewish heritage to scrutinize Western interventions in the Middle East. His works foreground the significance of cultural heritage in times of war and probe the ways in which societies negotiate the relative value of human life and cultural monuments.
Selma M. Yonus is a poet and author from Nineveh, Iraq. She has lived in Stavanger, Norway, since 2009. She has published several collections of poetry, which have been translated into multiple languages.
Basim Mardan is a writer, translator, human rights activist from Mosul, Iraq. He has lived in Norway, and the UK since 2006, and works for the International Cities of Refuge Network (ICORN). His work has been published in both Arabic and English and has been translated into multiple languages.