Project Description
Over a six-week period at the New Museum in New York,
(February 11–March 22, 2009) British artist Jeremy Deller has invited
journalists, Iraqi refugees, soldiers, and scholars to share their memories
of the last decade in and out of Iraq. In one-on-one conversations
with New Museum visitors, their stories will elucidate the present
circumstances in Iraq from many points of view. At the end of March,
“It Is What It Is: Conversations About Iraq” will travel across the country
from New York to California, with conversations conducted at more than
ten public sites along the way. Sergeant Jonathan Harvey, an American
veteran of the Iraq War, Esam Pasha, an Iraqi citizen, and Deller will be
aboard a specially outfitted RV, along with Nato Thompson, Creative
Time Curator, who will document the journey. Expanded versions of “It Is
What It Is” will take place at the Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, in April
and May of 2009, and at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago,
in October and November of 2009.
Perhaps the most ambitious project that Jeremy Deller
has undertaken to date, with more than ten institutions
involved as sponsors and/or hosts, and participants
projected in the thousands over a nine month period,
the goal of “It Is What It Is: Conversations About
Iraq” is modest: to encourage conversation about our
world. Conversations about the war and the country
of Iraq are few and far between in the United States.
Outside of the hyperbole of the media and the rising
death counts in the papers, Americans find it difficult
to intellectually connect with a country to which we
are paradoxically and inextricably tied. As we enter the
seventh year of our conflict in Iraq, many Americans
outside of the Army have never met an Iraqi citizen or
had contact with a soldier who has served time in Iraq.
“It Is What It Is” is a project that attempts to redress
this information gap, albeit in a small way, and in an
unconventional context. It is a project that strives to
present a broad, informational, nonpartisan perspective
of Iraq through firsthand encounters between the
general public and those who have significant scholarly
research to impart, military experiences to describe,
and heritage to share.
Bringing together the multifaceted perspectives
of a diverse group of people from places that are
geographically, economically, and politically distanced
is a task that is well suited to the environment of
an art gallery. One of the most basic challenges of
contemporary art practice is to forge a connection
between art and what is going on around us every day,
but while few people would deny that art comes out
of life, there is still great skepticism surrounding the
relevance of art to how we actually live. “It Is What
It Is” is one in a long line of projects on precisely this
subject that Jeremy Deller has dreamed up over the
past decade. The goal of Deller’s work has been to both
examine and celebrate elements of the everyday—from
our musical obsessions to our local customs, to the
struggles that we might encounter in our workplace
for fair compensation, or in the street for our political
beliefs. His method is to look at these aspects of life as
art—and not to take these aspects and make art out
of them. This is a crucial distinction. “It Is What It
Is” highlights straightforward conversation—as is—
supporting, appreciating, and respecting it in a manner
that indicates to us that in its richness, it can achieve the
level of art.
“It Is What It Is” puts a premium on discussion that
is open-ended. Skipping easy categories of “for”
or “against,” the invited conversationalists bring to
the table their wide experiences in order to broadly
describe political and social issues that affect those
in Iraq as well as those outside. These conversations
might be a bit messy, which is good, as black-and-white
readings of this situation have been of little use up to
now. “It Is What It Is: Conversations About Iraq” does
not promise to solve the problems between the U.S. and
Iraq, but it posits that there is beauty that approaches
art in human contact and intellectual exchange—that
is, in simply talking amongst ourselves.
—Laura Hoptman, Amy Mackie, and Nato Thompson
It Is What It Is: Conversations About Iraq is curated by Laura Hoptman, Kraus Family Senior Curator, and Amy Mackie, Curatorial Assistant, New Museum; and Nato Thompson, Curator, Creative Time.
Image: Digital photograph of Shabandar Café, Baghdad, ND. Courtesy Salon.com
