Tarkib catalogue English 2015 | Page 14

ADD FRIEND SO YOU CAN SPEAK WITH THE PRESIDENT by Ali Eyal Interactive Installation Unique artwork, 2013 This interactive piece allows the audience to connect via the computer with the organisations that suppressed the internet in Iraq and to chat directly through Facebook. The audience will therefore be able to see political figures that have governed Iraq in the years since the foundation of the Iraqi state but also interact with the imaginary characters that they represent on Facebook . These characters will reply to any questions that may be put to them. Ali Eyal (b. Baghdad, 1994) is a visual multimedia artist and uses different media to examine social attitudes and complexities. Eyal graduated from the Institute of Fine Arts in Baghdad, specialising in visual arts. He has exhibited in Baghdad, Najaf and other cities. Especially noteworthy is the fact that he exhibited at the Sharjah Biennial with the writer, artist, and architect Tony Chakar, who was the illustrator of his book “The dialogue that is us,” in 2012. Ali Eylal is a member of Sada,the Association for Contemporary Iraqi Arts, and was chosen to exhibit at the Cairo Festival of Video Art in 2013. 12