UNITED KINGDOM: Dramatic outdoor exhibition of photographs telling the personal stories of eight Iraqi women and a child

Record ID: 336062

  • Title: UNITED KINGDOM: Dramatic outdoor exhibition of photographs telling the personal stories of eight Iraqi women and a child
  • Date: 5th October 2007
  • Summary: (SOUNDBITE) (English) LONDON RESIDENT AMBER MASSIE-BLOMFIELD SAYING: "Well it's very powerful, it's obviously, kind of, the stories of ordinary people which you don't necessarily hear very often so I think that's really really important. It's really powerful seeing it in this location as well, you know, right in the heart of London and kind of surrounded by, kind of, the
  • Embargoed: 20th October 2007 13:00
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  • Location: United Kingdom
  • Country: United Kingdom
  • Reuters ID: LVAA5DKWC87P231K53PK4K4T64N
  • Story Text: The personal stories of a group of eight Iraqi women - and a six year-old child - were brought to life in an experimental exhibition that was unveiled on London's South Bank on Wednesday (October 3).
    The exhibition, entitled "Open Shutters: Iraq," features deeply personal and emotional photo stories taken by the eight women and the young girl of their lives in post war Iraq.
    The stories are presented using internally-lit monoliths, aligned along the bank to form a complete, temporary sculpture which gives their pictures and testimonies an illuminating presence at the heart of London.
    Maysoon Pachachi, a London-based Iraqi documentary film maker and daughter of Adnan Pachachi, a member of Iraq's parliament and a former acting speaker, is making a film to accompany the exhibition which will be released in the coming months.
    Pachachi, who travelled with the women to Syria in the spring of 2007, where they received photography lessons ahead of setting out, at considerable risk, to make the photo stories of their lives in Iraq, explained why she thought the exhibition was important.
    "People see Iraqis on television when there has been an explosion, but they don't know anything about who these people really are. You know, who are these people that have been injured in these bombings? They don't know anything about them. The Iraqi individual is not known so these pictures and the stories that these women have written, they are something individual and personal. They show a different point of view," she said, shortly after the exhibition's monoliths were lit-up for the first time.
    London resident Amber Massie-Blomfield, who stumbled on the exhibition by chance as she walked along the river, said she found the location of the exhibition to also be significant.
    "It's really powerful seeing it in this location as well, you know, right in the heart of London and kind of surrounded by, kind of, the City Hall and all of the big important buildings of London. So it's, kind of, quite a potent, I suppose, reminder for people who work in these buildings (of) what's going and what's happening in their name," she said.
    Another London resident, Kate Clark, said that although she thought the exhibition was important, she doubted whether it would have an effect on the attitudes of the British public.
    "You know London had one of the biggest anti-war demonstrations even though our prime minister took us to war so, you know, I guess it's good it's here," she said.
    "I don't know if it opens people's eyes because I think a lot of British people know what's going on anyway but it's an extremely powerful exhibition," she added.
    The" Open Shutters: Iraq" exhibition is presented by Index on Censorship, an organisation which stands in defence of basic human rights and freedom of expression.
    The exhibition, which will next travel to Madrid and then several other European cities, runs daily until the 2nd of November 2007 at More London, Queen's Walk, South Bank.
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