Michael Rakowitz's First Major Norwegian Survey Opens at Stavanger Art Museum
The Stavanger Art Museum is featuring a new exhibition titled 'Michael Rakowitz: Proxies for Poets and Palaces', representing the first extensive display of the Iraqi-American artist's creations in Norway. Key elements of the exhibit include eight original relief sculptures inspired by the Assyrian Northwest Palace of Kalhu, which forms part of Rakowitz's project, 'The invisible enemy should not exist'. This initiative was launched following the looting of the Iraq Museum in 2003. The showcase also features 'What dust will rise?' from Documenta 13, and a film reflecting on Leonard Cohen's unsuccessful concert in Ramallah in 2009.
Key facts
- First major survey of Michael Rakowitz in Norway
- Eight new reliefs reconstruct sculptures from the Assyrian Northwest Palace of Kalhu
- Reliefs are part of 'The invisible enemy should not exist' series
- Palace destroyed by ISIS in March 2015
- 'What dust will rise?' was commissioned by Documenta 13
- Film 'I’m good at love, I’m good at hate, it’s in between I freeze' addresses Leonard Cohen's cancelled 2009 Ramallah concert
- Rakowitz acquired Cohen's Olivetti typewriter on eBay
- Cohen's manager revoked music rights; restored with new soundtrack by Bill McKay
Entities
Artists
- Michael Rakowitz
- Ashurnasirpal II
- Abbas Allah Dad
- Bert Praxenthaler
- Leonard Cohen
- Robert Chase Heishman
- Bill McKay
Institutions
- Stavanger Art Museum
- Iraq Museum
- Documenta 13
- Hessian State Library
- Palestinian Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI)
Locations
- Norway
- Stavanger
- Kalhu
- Mosul
- Iraq
- Bamiyan Valley
- Afghanistan
- Kassel
- Chicago
- Tel Aviv
- Ramallah
- Montréal