<TitleType>01</TitleType> <TitleText>Shoot An Iraqi</TitleText> <Subtitle>Art, Life and Resistance Under the Gun</Subtitle>

City Lights Books transfers@onixsuite.com 20130919 eng

COM.ONIXSUITE.9780872864917 03 01 City Lights Books 01 GCOI 87286100925420 02 087286491X 03 9780872864917 15 9780872864917 BC <TitleType>01</TitleType> <TitleText>Shoot An Iraqi</TitleText> <Subtitle>Art, Life and Resistance Under the Gun</Subtitle> 1 A01 Bilal, Wafaa Wafaa Bilal Iraqi born artist Wafaa Bilal has exhibited his art world wide, and traveled and lectured extensively to inform audiences of the situation of the Iraqi people, and the importance of peaceful conflict resolution. Bilal's 2007 dynamic installation Domestic Tension placed him on the receiving end of a paintball gun that was accessible online to a worldwide audience, 24 hours a day. Newsweek called the project "breathtaking" and the Chicago Tribune called the month-long piece "one of the sharpest works of political art to be seen in a long time," and named Bilal its 2007 Artist of the Year. Bilal has exhibited worldwide including in Baghdad, the Netherlands, Thailand and Croatia; as well as at the Museum of Contemporary Photography in Chicago, the Milwaukee Art Museum and various other US galleries. His residencies have included Montalvo Arts Center in Saratoga, California; Catwalk in New York; and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. In fall 2008 City Lights published Shoot an Iraqi: Life, Art and Resistance Under the Gun, about Bilal's life and the Domestic Tension project. Bilal is currently a professor of Photography and Imaging at NYU's Tisch School of the Arts. 2 A01 Lydersen, Kari Kari Lydersen Kari Lydersen is a staff writer at The Washington Post's Midwest bureau and freelances for publications including In These Times and The Progressive. She is author of Out of the Sea and Into the Fire: Latin American-US Immigration in the Global Age (Common Courage Press, 2005) and teaches youth and college journalism classes in Chicago. 01 eng 240 00 240 03 20 "bilal video";"domestic tension video";"iraqi artist";"shoot an iraqi";"terrorist art";"virtual jihadi";"wafaa video";bilal;iraq;video;wafaa 01 Wafaa Bilal's childhood in Iraq was defined by the horrific rule of Saddam Hussein, two wars, a bloody uprising, and time spent interned in chaotic refugee camps in Kuwait and Saudi Arabia. Bilal eventually made it to the U.S. to become a professor and a successful artist, but when his brother was killed at a U.S. checkpoint in 2005, he decided to use his art to confront those in the comfort zone with the realities of life in a conflict zone. Thus the creation and staging of "Domestic Tension," an unsettling interactive performance piece: for one month, Bilal lived alone in a prison cell-sized room in the line of fire of a remote-controlled paintball gun and a camera that connected him to internet viewers around the world. Visitors to the gallery and a virtual audience that grew by the thousands could shoot at him 24 hours a day. The project received overwhelming worldwide attention, garnering the praise of the Chicago Tribune, which called it "one of the sharpest works of political art to be seen in a long time," and Newsweek's assessment "breathtaking." It spawned provocative online debates and ultimately, Bilal was awarded the Chicago Tribune's Artist of the Year Award. Structured in two parallel narratives, the story of Bilal's life journey and of his "Domestic Tension" experience, this first-person account is supplemented with comments on the history and current political situation in Iraq and the context of "Domestic Tension" within the art world, including interviews with art scholars such as Dean of the School of Art at Columbia University, Carol Becker, who also contributes the introduction. Shoot an Iraqi is equally pertinent reading for those who seek insight into the current conflict in Iraq, and for those fascinated by interactive art technologies and the ever-expanding world of online gaming. Wafaa Bilal, a professor of Photography and Imaging at NYU's Tisch School of the Arts, has exhibited his art worldwide and lectured extensively. He has been interviewed on NPR, the BBC, CNN, MSNBC and the History Channel. Praise for Shoot an Iraqi : "Once I picked up this manuscript, I could not put it down. There is something so urgent and compelling about Bilal's story, as though he is speaking to our time. His story is not just for those interested in the arts; it is a human story of the horror, frustration, and tragedies of war." —Mary Flanagan, artist and author of re:skin (MIT Press) "This is an unsettling and gripping book. It poignantly recounts a dark and imaginative experiment inspired by an excruciating and ghastly reality. Its unsettling effects couldn't be more welcome: we desperately need to be shocked out of our collective zombification, and this book does that by leading us through a wild labyrinth at once aesthetic, political, and existential. Potent stuff." —Danny Postel, author of Reading "Legitimation Crisis" in Tehran 02 An award-winning Iraqi artist's life story and the impact of his highly provocative interactive art piece 08 "Shoot an Iraqi: Art, Life and Resistance Under the Gun . . . illustrates inspiring possibilities for contemporary art to address key issues facing the world today, a call to action for the art world." Art Threat 08 Voted one of the Top 10 Arts Books of the Year 2009: "A staggering memoir by immigrant Iraqi artist Bilal, who staged a performance piece, during which online participants used a computer-controlled paintball gun to 'shoot an Iraqi.'" Booklist Online 08 Shoot An Iraqi . . . [is an account of] an interactive performance piece, illustrated, from a Iraqi brother for another brother killed by a U.S. Predator drone. 'For one month Bilal lived alone in a prison cell sized room in the line of fire of a remote-controlled paintball gun and a camera that connected him to internet viewers around the world.' He was shot at 24 hours a day." Longhousepoetry.com 08 "Shoot an Iraqi: Art, Life and Resistance Under the Gun by Wafaa Bilal and Kari Lydersen recounts Bilal's journey, his life in Iraq under Saddam Hussein's regime, his survival of two wars, his life in refugee camps, plus 'Domestic Tension', a month-long live performance in a Chicago gallery with Internet users watching his every movement and taking shots at his with remote-controlled paint guns." Banipal, Magazine of Modern Arab Literature 08 "Most remarkable about this book is the thoroughly candid, unsentimental and non-martyr-making way that Bilal and Lydersen describe his life in the Middle East and the dramatic month in Chicago when he relived through art his own and his two nations' traumas. Lowering his defenses, Bilal offered himself up as the quintessential enemy, and then shared his catharsis with his friends and foes everywhere. That the art of war can cause so much suffering explains why there are so few recruits." —Don J. Cohn ArtAsiaPacific 08 "Iraqi artist Wafaa Bilal presents 'The Ashes Series,' featuring photographs and miniature models that portray the ruins of Baghdad. 'From far away, I watch Iraq being slowly destroyed. I have always longed to return there, but since I can't, this is a way to meditate on the situation and find peace by rebuilding these destroyed places,' Bilal says." Nadia Beidas, Jerusalem Post 08 "Who in their right mind would allow the internet to shoot at them? Shoot an Iraqi: Art, Life, and the Resistance Under the Gun tells the story of Wafaa Bilal. When his brother was killed by an unmanned Military device during the Iraq war, Bilal took it locked himself in a room, a camera showing him to the world with a remote controlled paintball gun connected to the internet, in the name of art and political statement. Bilal explains himself quite well, making Shoot an Iraqi fascinating reading." Midwest Book Review 08 "Iraq artist Wafaa immigrated to the U.S. and channelled his haunting experiences into performance pieces, culminating in Domestic Tension: [sic] for an entire month Wafaa, on camera, invited online participants to 'shoot an Iraqi' with a computer-controlled paintball gun. His memoir about his life and the profound impact of his bold installation is powerful and demanding." Skillings Mining Review 08 <script type="text/javascript" src="http://shots.snap.com/ss/387225c00b79c3252ec299d995cd5758/snap_shots.js"></script> "[A] highly readable, moving book." —Bea Leal The Socialist Review 08 "[Shoot an Iraqi] brilliantly demonstrate[s] the lengths to which one man went to live history, and the disturbing—and occasionally hopeful—things he learned when he invited the entire world to do it with him." —John Freeman Jerusalem Post 08 "Iraqi-born artist Wafaa Bilal details a compelling interactive art project he undertook in 2007 . . . for 31 days in spring 2007, the artist, then a professor at the School of the Art Institute in Chicago, lived in Chicago's FlatFile Galleries in front of a webcam and a remote-controlled paintball gun as part of a video game he created that allowed online players . . . to shoot paintballs at him—65,000 in total—sometimes relentlessly. . . . The self-imposed ordeal was also intended to comment on the remote-controlled warfare that allows soldiers to dehumanize their very human targets, including Bilal's brother Haji, a suspected insurgent who was killed with the support of a U.S. drone. For Bilal, who now teaches at NYU, art and life are inseparable." Art in America 08 "What is most remarkable about Shoot an Iraqi isn't, however, the chronicle of the project that brought him worldwide attention, but the back story. Weaved amid a narrative of the 31-day experiment is a memoir of his life in Iraq and eventual flight to Kuwait and then Saudi Arabia, followed by his attempt to make a new life in the United States." —Gabriel Thompson<cite class="byline"></cite> Brooklyn Rail 08 <div>"Neither Bilal's exhibit nor this absorbing book about it can expiate Iraq's condition. Rather, they brilliantly demonstrate the lengths to which one man went to live history, and the disturbing—and occasionally hopeful —lesson he learned when he invited the entire world to do it with him." </div> <div>—John Freeman</div> <div></div> New Jersey Star-Ledger 08 <div>"Shoot an Iraqi is an invaluable work of political art and a clear-eyed view of the profoundly disturbing fate of present-day Iraq."</div> <div></div> <div></div> Shelf Awareness 08 "Iraqi artist Bilal emigrated to the U.S. after Desert Storm, and channeled his haunting experiences into his performance pieces, culminating in Domestic Tension. For 31 days and nights, Bilal was the target of a paintball gun controlled by online participants who were invited to "shoot an Iraqi." Video cameras recorded Bilal's struggle to retain his composure if not his sanity as he interacted with shooters and viewers via a chat room and YouTube. Now he writes about his art and his life in Iraq, revealing overlooked daily struggles of existence under a dictator, in war, and during a long-term occupation. Ultimately the death of his brother back home via an unmanned American drone compelled Bilal to make his greatest artistic statement yet against all that makes the war in Iraq unreal to most outsiders. Recounting his own traumatic journey and the long-ranging effects of his bold installation makes for a powerful and demanding read, that is, frankly, a literary punch to the gut. Bilal discloses all the risks he has taken with his art, and asks why Americans are not willing to take their own chances and uncover the dirty truths about the Iraq War." —Colleen Mondor Booklist, Starred Review 08 "Weaving together accounts of Iraq and America, art and violence, performance and reality, past and present, this gripping account all but shakes the reader by the lapels. Iraqi-born artist Bilal records the month he spent confined in his 2007 interactive performance piece entitled Domestic Tension, living under constant fire from a chat room–controlled paintball gun 24 hours a day, his every move dogged and determined by the hostility—or benevolence—of his thousands of online viewers. The nerve-rattling conditions were intended to reflect both decades of suffering endured by millions of Iraqis and Bilal's own life and the costs of surviving Saddam's regime, Gulf War bombardment, Sunni-Shia violence, a brutal Saudi refugee camp and, finally, the difficulties and joys of the American immigrant experience. The author emerges as an Iraqi everyman, and his provocative book brilliantly juxtaposes images and time frames to convey the toll of war on Americans and Iraqis: 'We may think we are surviving,' Bilal writes, 'but as I... twist and turn through sleepless nights, flailing between worlds of comfort and conflict, hope and despair, I wonder.'" Publishers Weekly (starred review) 08 "History simply refuses to leave some people alone. The Iraqi artist Wafaa Bilal grew up under Saddam Hussein, survived two wars, was forced to live for periods at refugee camps in Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, and finally escaped to the U.S. in 1992 to study art. When his father and brother were killed during the latest U.S. invasion of his country, Bilal responded by creating the now infamous art piece Domestic Tension, in which the artist spent a month living in a Chicago gallery where Internet users could watch his day-to-day movements and, if they felt like it, take shots at him with a remote-controlled paint gun. By the end, more than 60,000 people had opened fire. Shoot an Iraqi—a name he initially considered for the installation—combines autobiographical narrative with a discussion of his work and its political implications." Village Voice 23 01 http://www.citylights.com/resources/titles/87286100925420/extras/WafaaBilalInterview.pdf 04 03 72 01 http://www.citylights.com/resources/titles/87286100925420/images/87286100925420L.jpg 07 03 72 01 http://www.citylights.com/resources/titles/87286100925420/images/87286100925420S.jpg http://www.citylights.com/book/?GCOI=87286100925420 City Lights Publishers 01 City Lights Publishers 20081001 08 16 oz City Lights Books 01 WORLD 20 20081001 01 02 16.95 USD