Battles in a Future Estate-Haifa Street
Ala Younis
2025
Walkthrough installation, 13 x 7,5 m, height variable
Co-commissioned and co-produced by L’Art Rue/Dream City and Art Jameel.
A walkthrough model of Haifa Street in Baghdad with stories, histories, dreams, and battles shown in its corners and backwalls.
Built in the 1980s by international firms, its buildings embodied a distinctive architectural vision, with the street as a prototype for a possible regional architecture. Blocks were named after the nationality of their builders and allocated to specific groups—Dutch apartments for academics, German for Syrian dissidents, and others for government employees.
The Saddam Arts Centre dominated the street, its imagery reinforcing perceptions of regime loyalty. In 2006, US military intelligence cameras captured the Battle of Haifa Street, showing soldiers moving through its high-rise apartments. Today, real estate listings advertise these spaces in a recovering Baghdad. The project attempts to cascade four decades into a single viewing point.
diptyk | Dream City fait résonner la polyphonie des mémoires du monde arabe | par Farah Sayem | Article in French
3 October - 2pm to 6pm /
4 to 19 October - 10am to 6pm
Preparatory School Rue des Glacières (map)
From 3 to 19 octobre from 10h to 18h
Duration : Continuous
Access with Dream Exhibition Pass - Journey 1 - per day: 5 DT
Childrens and Students: 3 DT
For online sales on Teskerti, a tax of 1,500 DT will be added to the price shown.
Artist's assistant: Hajer Neji
With the support of the Arab Fund for Arts and Culture - AFAC
Read more
-
Du 03 au 19 october - École préparatoire Rue des glacières
Suni‘a BisihrikaMapping Lessons (The Lessons)Philip Rizk -
6 oct. at 3pm - Cinéma Le Mondial - Lebanon
CinemaIsmyrnaby Joana Hadjithomas & Khalil JoreigeLebanon -
Du 03 au 19 october - Théâtre Al Hamra
Suni‘a BisihrikaLand of Barbar: The LionFradj Moussa
