THE PROTESTING ARCHIVE
Text by: Myassa Kraitt
The October Revolution of 2019 marks an important break and a new artistic and thematic direction for Almukhtar. Demands for regime change and the fight against corruption initially also inspired Almukhtar's work and political activism in Vienna. After the murder of 800 demonstrators of the Tishreen Uprising in Baghdad in 2020, Almukhtar is dealing with the issue of state-sanctioned violence, capitalism, exploitation, and resource colonialization and puts a crucial emphasis on environmental questions.
DUKHANIA
charcoal on paper 460 x 150 cm
2020
The artwork itself taking the audience on an exploitative journey in order to question global systems of injustice and finally call for action.
In away Almukhtar reveilles the inner working of neocolonial capitalism and provides an understanding for the struggle of youth in the Global South from an non-abstract and embodied perspective of activist care. The artwork of Dukhania started as a figurative documentation of the Tishreeni activist movement as the uprise remained to be undocumented in western media and the government of Iraq had brutally sanctioned the demonstrators efforts for transformative change and justice.
