The « documents for an exhibition » displayed in Bagdad mon amour, explore modern and contemporary Iraqi art, after the devastating lootings of museums and archaeological sites with the burst of the Second Gulf War in 2003. A post-traumatic inquiry seeking to rethink historical collections and archives through the museum without walls to which artists often hold to – as well as through Interpol or the archaeologist’s databases. By seizing tools such as the inventory, the study of monuments and documents, these artists come out with works marked by anxiety but still ready to sing on the ruins: works carrying both the ghost museum and the makeshift museum of Iraq.

This book was published alongslide the exhibition Bagdad mon amour at Institut des Cultures d’Islam, Paris (23 March-29 August 2018), presenting the artists Sherko Abbas, Latif Al Ani, Resmi Al Kafaji, Ali Assaf, Salam Atta Sabri, Julien Audebert, Dia Azzawi, Joanne Farchakh-Bajjaly, Himat, Hanaa Malallah, Mehdi Moutashar, Mosul Eye Bureau, Michael Rakowitz, Jewad Selim, Lorna Selim, Walid Siti, Sharif Waked, Ala Younis.