Camera: Phil Collins

A year before the 2003 US- and UK-led invasion of their country, unnamed young Iraqis sit for a series of static-frame single-take portraits. Bored and silent, they smoke, settle in front of the camera, meet the camera’s gaze, and break into smiles with suspicion, restraint and a quiet unfolding of the self, recorded alongside a selection of Western pop songs loaded with yearning and heartbreak. An improbable reversal of Warholian notions of celebrity and fame, baghdad screentests takes an unassuming but determined stand against the media representations of an imaginary ‘enemy’ in the lead up to an illegal war.

Tickets for the program are available here.

• Programm Programme: Losing What is Lost