Iraq

Fatherland is a solo exhibition by Serwan Baran. It explores the relationship between man and his native country through the position of the soldier. Iraqi Kurdish artist Serwan Baran was born in Baghdad in 1968. To date he has experienced over forty years of war in his country. During his time as a soldier and a war artist, Baran was forced to record the ‘glory’ of the Iraqi army and painted the conflict’s casualties for government propaganda purposes. The choice of Fatherland as a title, in contrast with Motherland, is also a commentary on the masculine and paternalistic dimension of the political culture of Iraq as well as of the region. The country is dominated by men, who have inflicted oppressive ideologies and have launched wars. It can also be an examination of the role of the father as a patriarch in this socio-political culture, a fixed figure that continues to dominate in spite of the many attempts to challenge it.