ARTWORK LIST 1 Nobody’s Listening is a ground breaking Virtual Reality experience and immersive exhibition programme that commemorates the Yazidi genocide initiated by ISIS in the summer of 2014 in northern Iraq. Six years on, the genocide is still ongoing. Nearly 3,000 Yazidi women and children remain missing or in captivity, and not a single ISIS fighter has been brought to justice for the crime of genocide. Using cutting-edge Virtual Reality technology, photography and art, the exhibition explores the consequences of the genocidal campaign by ISIS – its devastating effect on persecuted communities and their cultural heritage. Above all, Nobody’s Listening pays tribute to the courage, determination and agency of the survivors, and gives them a space where they can be heard by people around the world. Together they are one voice, calling for international recognition and justice. 2 ARTISTS Photography Artworks Sculpture HALA IVANA WALEED FORENSIC ARCHITECTURE FARHAD AL-KAKE THABIT MIKHAEL ARAZ SULAIMAN SALWA NAHRIN MALKI PIERS SECUNDA THIKRAN SALAM NOH JULIET HASSAN FALAH AL-RASAM SADIQ KHEDAR SAHER SHAKER SUHALIA DAKHIL TALO BADRAN ALI KHEDER DAHAM JAMIL SORO HANA HASSAN For more information about the project go to: www.nobodys-listening.com 3 IVANA WALEED (b. 1996, Germany) Ivana is a young Yazidi artist from the village of Tel emotions. Ivana’s untitled painting of a faceless woman Qasab, near Sinjar in northern Iraq. She endured was the product of just two such meetings in 2019. many months of brutality and suffering in ISIS She reveals that she had wanted to draw a face for this captivity, but she does not refer to herself as a woman, but ultimately felt unable: “When I stand in “survivor” because she does not consider herself a front of this picture, I think it is me, and when other victim. By escaping her captors, she says she has beaten women stand in front of it they should think the same, ISIS, and she now works tirelessly to bring perpetrators because this woman represents every one of us. If she to justice. had a face it would determine whether she is sad or happy, but nobody could be sure; each woman who Ivana remembers a simple but happy village life with looks at the painting should make her own decision as her parents and many siblings before the genocide of to what she sees and what name the painting should the Yazidi community by ISIS began in August 2014: have.” “We didn’t have many opportunities, but we were still happy and tried to use the opportunities we had.” Ivana is hopeful that more Yazidis may receive the She pursued her education in the knowledge that support from which she has benefited, and she insists her options were limited without a degree: “Women that there is “no chance for the community without especially didn’t have many opportunities; they usually people supporting us from outside.” She is thankful do the housework. That’s why I wanted to be a doctor for the ongoing support from organizations such as – I wanted to be a role model to other women.” Now UNITAD but says there is still much work to do: “Half living as a refugee in Germany, her ambition to work as of our people are living in wrecked houses, half of a doctor remains. them in tents. This is not the way of life we wanted for ourselves. Supporting oppressed people in our societies The special-quota project of the German federal state is really important.” of Baden-Württemberg, which settled 1,100 Yazidi women and children, gave Ivana what she calls a “golden chance” to start a new life. “I am very proud of the people working on this project,” she says, “I’m thankful for this [special- “because they have saved the lives of others. If these people had stayed in Iraq, I don’t know what would quota] project and I hope that have happened to them.” The challenge of adapting to a radically different culture in Germany was significant, there will be more projects like especially the need to learn a new language. Everything Ivana once had in Iraq was suddenly lost, and she had this, not just in Germany but in to begin again from zero. Yet she says that the German people have been welcoming and supportive, and that other places too.” she does not consider the country to be her second home, but rather her “first home.” – Ivana Waleed One of the support initiatives of the Baden- Untitled Württemberg project is art therapy, where participants 650 x 500 mm draw and then discuss their art works and related Acrylic on paper 4 HALA (b. 1996, Iraq) Hala is from a Yazidi village community in the Sinjar At a young age, Hala is emphatic on the need for real district of the Nineveh Governorate in northern Iraq. change and concerted action in her country: “We need She now lives in an Iraqi IDP camp with her siblings, a committee to be created that can look for our missing having lost her parents in the genocide perpetrated by people, especially in the al-Hol camp [in northern ISIS in the region from 2014 onwards. Hala herself was Syria]. We need the international community to stand held captive and has lived in the camp ever since she beside us – we need to feel that we are not alone and was released, almost three years ago now. Like the rest that people are thinking about us.” She is at pains to of her community, she is concerned about the nearly describe the complex feelings of loss that she and her 3,000 Yazidis who remain unaccounted for: “They are people have experienced: “We lost literally everything saying there is no ISIS on the ground now, but if this is we had. It is like travelling to another country with only true, where are our missing and kidnapped people?” the clothes you have on. You have nothing else with Hala recalls that her life in Sinjar before the genocide you. If you ask me what help we need, I don’t even was “beautiful and simple”, and she explains that know where to start – we need psychological, physical, she and her friends all went to school with dreams financial, educational, and social support.” and ambitions: “I wanted to become a doctor – my Life in the IDP camp is difficult for Hala and her dream now is to deliver the survivors’ messages to family, and she asserts that more help is needed the international community, regardless of their than what has been provided so far: “It is a life of an community or background. I want to speak out – the orphan. No education, no work – we are basically Yazidis have suffered 74 genocidal attacks, and this is waiting for outside aid and it doesn’t always come. because we did not dare to speak. I choose to speak up Not everyone has a chance to work and provide for and share my story with others, and to help those who themselves.” Out of Hala’s suffering and indignation are not able or allowed to speak, or who have been emerges a resolute pride in her community and silenced. I now want to study law to be able to do this.” heritage: “No matter how much the Yazidis have been through, they become more closely connected with Along with so many others, Hala endured unimaginable their identity and support each other even more. I am suffering at the hands of ISIS aggressors, and she is proud of that and I hope it continues.” For the next adamant that these perpetrators must be brought to generation of Yazidis, Hala emphasizes the importance justice, both domestically and internationally: “We of sharing collective memories: “They will hear about Photo Credit - Alice Aedy need and want our rights; we need to not be forgotten, the Yazidi genocide, as I did when I was growing up. and this is done by taking ISIS to court. We want They must listen to these stories and never forget.” justice, and ISIS was not only from Iraq, they were from countries all over the world. I want the ones who came to Iraq to be put on trial in their home countries.” “They are saying there is no ISIS on the ground now, but if this Hala also explains that, nearly six years on, the survivors are still denied opportunities to grieve and process their is true, where are our missing and kidnapped people? We need suffering: “They killed our fathers and our brothers. If we could bury them properly and visit them on religious a committee to be created that can look for our missing people, occasions, maybe it would help us. At least we would know that they have a resting place, and we would especially in the al-Hol camp [in northern Syria].” - Hala have a grave to visit. We could feel comfortable and at peace. Without that, it is really difficult to move on.” 5 THABIT MIKHAEL (b. 1963, Iraq) Thabit Mikhael is an Assyrian sculptor and painter from Qaraqosh, also known as Bakhdida, in northern Iraq. He graduated as an artist from Baghdad University, and was producing sculptures for local churches that had been attacked by terrorists even before ISIS targeted his community in 2014. The Assyrians have some of the most ancient cultural roots in the region, and Thabit explains that he fell in love with art because of his historic surroundings: “The main reasons I wanted to be an artist were the circumstances around us.