ARCHIVE

Michael Rakowitz’s work commonly deals with loss and cultural erasure, especially in the face of war and other violence. It’s almost perfectly fitting then, though tragic, that the Iraqi journalist he planned a radio series around lost first his ability to speak, then his life, after their first recording session together. Rakowitz was planning to bring Bahjat Abdulwahed, often called “the Walter Kronkite of Baghdad,” back to the airwaves in his adoptive city of Philadelphia, PA. Instead, he found himself producing a seven-episode radio series that includes the voices of veterans of the Iraq war and Iraqi refugees, stories about Iraqi culture that was lost to violence during the war and under Saddam Hussein’s regime, the life of the missing host, Bahjat Abdulwahed, and insights into the history and changes in culture and politics of Iraq. Each episode is linked to a theme of voicelessness, of silence, but is full of sounds of songs, stories, poetry, history, and humanity. As with his other artworks, Rakowitz recruits participants to engage in the art, featuring writing by Iraq war veterans, a radio play by an Iraqi artist, Iraqi music, and interviews with historians, journalists, and everyday people. These sounds weave together different elements of the story of Iraq in the 20th century, sketching out a picture of what was lost, and what is being created both in Iraq and in the diaspora created by decades of colonialism and conflict in Iraq. The series was produced in collaboration with Mural Arts Philadelphia and originally broadcast on WPPM PhillyCAM Radio 106.5 FM in 2015.
- Described by Wave Farm Radio Artist Fellow 2020/2021, Jess Speer.