Donation
La Pluie d'Oiseaux

A project to build a contemporary art collection
for the Sulaimany museum
(Kurdistan of Iraq)

Contact diffusion : lpo@lapluiedoiseaux.asso.fr

Project
Genesis
Contributors
Gifts
Le voyage d'Olivier (mars 2002)

A Showerind of Birds
La Pluie d'Oiseaux et le Kurdistan
Colour&Word
Maps
Home

"The opening, in my homeland, of a window to the world"

This is how Rebwar, the Kurdish painter and poet, described his dream : to set up a collection of contemporary art from Europe and beyond in a museum in Iraqi Kurdistan.

The Donation was set up by the association "La Pluie d'Oiseaux" (a showering of birds) to give substance to this idyllic notion. In so doing, it aims to create a momentum for interaction between artists and the forces of cultural life, such as public bodies and communities, universities, technicians, and, of course, audiences, to raise the social awareness of art both here and in Kurdistan.

Sulainany (photo Olivier Touron)

Project :

By collecting

works of contemporary art, the ultimate aim is make a donation of this collection to a museum in a country needing aid for cultural development.
.

This very positive and tangible idea raises important questions :

What content should museums provide in the new millennium ?

How should it be displayed ?

How can this collection be formed in the light of our capabilities and our desires ?

To explore these questions actively:
the donation will circulate
around France and travel
to Belgium, Britain, Germany, and elsewhere..

From its roots in
the Nord / Pas de Calais
and largely through
artists living in that region,
this donation will be
a showcase for the contemporary art,.

while maintaining a European
and international dimension.
We also wish it
to provide ample space for
collective creation and expression.

Genesis :

Following

the Gulf War, Iraqi Kurdistan received humanitarian aide.

But once the exodus of the population
and the chemical weapons bombardments
had faded from the world's news screens,
the fate of the country was quickly forgotten.
In early 2001, the shipwreck of a boat
full of Kurdish refugees reminded us that
this troubled region, though one of the cradles of humanity,
still cries out for the support of the international community.

The country needs food and medical aid.
But it also has cultural needs.

This is what Rebwar, the Kurdish painter and poet,
brought to our attention as early as 1996
when he launched an appeal for the founding
of a collection of contemporary art in Iraqi Kurdistan.

The association "La Pluie d'Oiseaux" took up this project.
In partnership with The Kurdish Association,
Middlesex University,
Art in Common (London)
and Projection Caliban (Brussels),
it organised the "Artistic Exchange Markets",
exhibitions where works of art are bartered.
Through these events,
a solid base was formed
for the Sulaimany museum collection.

The "Edwarina" group of artists
( Rebwar, Edith Henry, Karina Washko)
made gifts of individual or collective works
to the association La Pluie d'Oiseaux.
Some of these were exchanged for other works,
forming the first fruits of the collection.
Other artists contributed to the project
by donating their own works or by participating
in discussions to push it forward.