THE INVISIBLE ENEMY SHOULD NOT EXIST (SECTION 1, ROOM C, NORTHWEST PALACE OF NIMRUD)

Michael Rakowitz’s “The invisible enemy should not exist” is an ongoing series that he began in 2007. The goal: to recreate the missing and destroyed artifacts taken from the National Museum of Iraq, more than 7,000 in total—a cultural pillaging that occurred in the early 2000’s during the Iraq War and its wake. Then, in 2015, Rakowitz extended the series to include the “reappearance” of the relief panels from Kalhu (Nimrud), room by room. Kalhu was the site of an Assyrian palace, a treasure of ancient Mesopotamia (located in current-day Numaniyah, south of Mosul, Iraq); the relief panels that remained at Kalhu were destroyed by ISIS in 2015, sending shock waves throughout the world and causing grief in the local community. In Rakowitz’s recreations of the rooms at Kalhu, he leaves out the looted reliefs which now sit at reputable, colonialist institutions throughout the West. These blank spaces carry weight. As Rakowitz deftly nods towards in his work with these empty spaces, the robberies and devastations of Kalhu, and places like it, began long before ISIS. It began with 19th century imperialist practices—be they political, archeological, or excavational. The Western mentality that any and all cultural history is theirs for the taking, coupled with the present-day dehumanization by the West of the people said history birthed is the hypocrisy and catalyst that led to this series. Up to today, Rakowitz, with his studio, has rebirthed about 900 of the objects lost forever from the National Museum of Iraq, and they have reappeared 7 rooms from Kalhu/Nimrud: Room N, G, Z, H, and sections from Room F and S. And, now Rakowitz’s Section 1 of Room C from Nimrud can be seen at Pi Artworks in Istanbul.

Michael Rakowitz

28.10.2021 - 25.12.2021