Iraqi Memorial

Result

First Juror's Review has been announced.

Overview

Iraqimemorial.org is a call to action to artists, designers, architects or other interested creative individuals or collaborators to propose concepts for the creation of memorials to the many thousands of Iraqi civilians killed in the War in Iraq.

Category Idea Competition / Open to Students / Competition Result
Type Memorial Idea Competition
Genre Conceptual, Memorial
Country United States
RegDeadline 19 March 2008 GoogleCal iCal
19 March 2008 (via Online)
Eligibility All who are 18 years old at minimum

Statement of Ideation and Intent:
On February 19, 2004, the World Trade Center Site Memorial Competition web site was launched. The site provides public access to 5,201 proposals from 63 countries that were submitted to this call for proposals to commemorate, in the words of the competition mission statement, "the thousands of innocent men, women and children murdered by terrorists" in the attacks of 1993 and 9/11.

"Operation Iraqi Freedom", the invasion of Iraq, had been underway for eleven months. It was at this time that I began to seriously think about the meaning and context of memorials to war.

Who is remembered? Who is mourned?

I remember thinking that there would never be a memorial to the increasing number of innocent civilians who continue to die in the war in Iraq.

Here we were, in the process of carefully and respectfully working to remember and honor the innocents of 9/11 while simultaneously many thousands of people, arguably just as innocent, were being killed in order for us to fight terrorism, protect our freedoms, and spread democracy abroad. At the time of the WTC Memorial Competition in 2003-2004, estimates ranged from 15,000 to 100,000 civilian casualties in Iraq. As of 2007, estimates run from 73,000 to over 655,000 deaths in Iraq of non-combatants.

The idea behind Iraqimemorial.org is quite straight forward - to invite artists from all over the world to propose memorials to the victims of a war who will likely never be recognized through official processes. The submitted proposals may never be realized - the intent is to facilitate a process that allows for the expression of concepts as a collective, networked, creative act of remembrance that takes place in the present tense.

Memorials exist for a variety of reasons: to create an opportunity for the contemplation of loss; to honor sacrifice; to celebrate heroism and to consecrate a process of mourning that is ongoing and public. This call for proposals for memorials to the thousands of innocents killed in Iraq is an effort to establish an opportunity for the creative community to conceptualize works that seek to recognize, reveal, and process the true cost of this war. The value lies in the recognition of death and suffering in the immediate - remembering the present and calling attention to the continuing horror that is being bestowed upon the civilian population of Iraq.

- Joseph DeLappe, 10/2007

Jury
Dr. Nadje Al-Ali (Centre for Gender Studies at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, UK)
Yaelle Amir (Independent Curator and Writer)
Dr Bernadette Buckley (Lecturer in International Politics, Goldsmiths University of London)
Monica Narula & Shuddhabrata Sengupta (The Raqs Media Collective)
Dr. David Simpson (Professor of English, University of California Davis)
John David Spiak (Curatorial, Arizona State University Art Museum)
Dr. Marjorie Vecchio (Director/Curator, Sheppard Fine Arts Gallery, University of Nevada, Reno)

Prize
Exhibition (there will be no "winner" of this competition)

Entry Fee
None

Entries
There are no restrictions in regard to materials, media or processes.
Entries are accepted via this website. Please prepare the following information then use the online proposal form to complete the entry process:
- 1-2 jpeg files and/or audio/video files up to (.mp3 or .mov), (a total 2 files maximum combined 15mb per submission)
- project synopsis (200 words max)
- artist's bio (100 words max)
- artist's URL/website
- Name, address, email, phone number, etc.

Timetable
As a user generated content site, the project is ongoing indefinitely – Iraqimemorial.org will continue to be realized as new memorial proposals are uploaded to the site. A first “Juror’s Deadline for Review” has been established as March 19th, 2008, the fifth anniversary of the start of the war in Iraq.

Links
Open Forum: http://iraqimemorial.blogspot.com/

Project Director
Joseph DeLappe (Associate Professor of the Department of Art at the University of Nevada)

Official Website
http://www.iraqimemorial.org/