Narciso

Al Basrah, hometown of Iraqi artist Ali Assaf, was once called the “Venice of the Middle East” because of its striking architecture and many canals. Having left Iraq to study abroad, Assaf was shocked on his return in 2010 to see that Al Basrah had been ruined by war, embargo, and drought; its canals had dried up and were filled with trash. In this video, created for the Iraqi Pavilion of the 2011 Venice Biennale, the artist adopts the costume and pose of Narcissus in a c. 1597 painting by Caravaggio in order to reflect on what a modern-day Narcissus would see in Al Basrah’s polluted water. A mythological character from Roman poet Ovid’s "Metamorphoses" (published 8 CE), Narcissus is known for falling in love with his own reflection in a pool of water. Assaf’s video questions assumptions about longing and identity, and links them to external factors such as home, family, and the devastating effects of war.