Ala Younis: Plan For Feminist Greater Baghdad

Kuwait-born, Jordan-based artist Ala Younis presents her solo show “Plan for Feminist Greater Baghdad”, held simultaneously in London at the Delfina Foundation and in Dubai at Art Jameel. Included in the show, a new installation co-commissioned by Delfina and Art Jameel builds on Younis’s 2015 work, “Plan for Greater Baghdad” that was part of the Central Exhibition of the 56th Venice Biennale curated by Okwui Enwezor. In “Plan for Greater Baghdad” (2015), Younis looked at monuments, (by) architects, (for) governments, and the short state of empowerment they gained as politics shifted in Iraq. The project anchored itself within the history of a gymnasium in Baghdad that was
designed by Le Corbusier and named after Saddam Hussein. Heavily based on archives, found material, and the stories of its male protagonists, the project explored issues relating to the protection of monuments for posterity, and the creation of plans for Baghdad as either an expression of power or as a necessity.
In the newly commissioned work, “Plan (fem.) for Greater Baghdad” (2018), Younis brings to the fore the significant contributions made by female artists, architects and other influential characters to the development of Baghdad and its modern monuments. Typical of Younis’s investigative practice, the work rearticulates archival material to bring about new narratives. In this case, the reading sees beyond the male dominance of the city’s architecture and politics, to reveal the female influence on Baghdad’s history.