Berlin Biennale faces criticism for displaying Abu Ghraib torture images alongside Iraqi artists' work

The 2022 Berlin Biennale exhibited Jean-Jacques Lebel's 'Poison Soluble' (2013) at Hamburger Bahnhof Museum, featuring enlarged photographs from Abu Ghraib prison alongside works by Iraqi artists Sajjad Abbas, Layth Kareem, and Raed Mutar. Lead curator Kader Attia defended the inclusion as a 'provocative prompt' to confront American colonialism. Rijin Sahakian, who lent Mutar's work, wrote an open letter criticizing the display, noting Kareem revealed family members were imprisoned at Abu Ghraib without consent for image use. The Iraqi artists withdrew their works. The controversy follows decades of debate about ethics in displaying images of torture, referencing Susan Sontag's 'Regarding the Pain of Others' (2003) and Judith Butler's 'Torture and the Ethics of Photography' (2007). The article connects this to broader patterns of awareness politics, citing the 2006 Vogue Italia 'State of Emergency' photoshoot by Steven Meisel that eroticized War on Terror imagery. Historical context includes the 2004 CBS News leak of Abu Ghraib abuse footage, 2016 Department of Defense release of 198 abuse photos, and 2022 release of Guantánamo prisoner Saifullah Paracha. Legal scholar Scott McClintock analyzed Guantánamo as a 'material and symbolic apparatus of power.' The piece critiques how art institutions instrumentalize trauma under decolonization rhetoric without creating conditions for political consciousness.