Michael Rakowitz the 38 year old Iraqi American Artist and Professor renowned for his conceptual art displayed in non-gallery contexts has a new installation work on the streets of Chicago, titled ‘Enemy Kitchen’. The work is a continuing project begun in 2004 as a collaboration with his Iraqi-Jewish mother. Rakowitz states on his web “…the first incarnation of the project  …with a group of middle school and high school students who live in Chelsea… Some had relatives in the US Army stationed in Iraq. …In preparing and then consuming the food [Baghdadi recipes], it opened up another topic through which the word ‘Iraq’ could be discussed… The project functioned as a social sculpture: while cooking and eating, the students engaged each other on the topic of the war and drew parallels with their own lives, at times making comparisons with bullies in relation to how they perceive the conflict.” This new phase of the project encompasses a mobile food truck in Chicago at the Smart Museum of Art. The food truck features a different Iraqi cook each day, serving cuisine from different regions of the country, and will be staffed by American veterans of the Iraq War who act as servers and sous-chefs.”

 

Inspired by Ruth Lopez http://ow.ly/a6YmI image source Vimeo http://ow.ly/a6Z5y