Representation and identity: Reflections on presenting contemporary art in an American museum

This text is a curatorial reflection upon the process of organizing the exhibition Theater of Operations: The Gulf Wars 1991–2011, which took place at MoMA PS1 in 2019. The text questions the possibilities and limits of decolonial curating in an American museum and analyses the reception of Iraqi contemporary art in a Western context.

Naming Atrocity: Theater of Operations: The Gulf Wars 1991–2011, curated by Peter Eleey and Ruba Katrib

Naming atrocity: Theater of Operations: The Gulf Wars 1991–2011, curated by Peter Eleey and Ruba Katrib MoMA PS1, New York, 3 November 2019–1 March 2020

7. The apotheosis of air power 1983–2001

The period immediately after Vietnam saw little new thinking in the application of air power. ‘The apotheosis of air power 1983–2001’ looks at how this changed. After examining briefly the new ideas encapsulated by the term ‘manoeuvre warfare’, it looks at some of the capabilities that made it happen, particularly precision and stealth. It then considers several campaigns that saw air power used as the main military instrument in the Gulf Wars (1980–91) and the Balkan Wars (1991–9). Many commentators see this period as the age when air power truly came into its own as an instrument of state power and indeed coercion.

New Orleans 1991 / New York 2004

Poem on the Gulf Wars