Dia al Azzawi’s monument to academics assasinated in Iraq

As of last August 2010 304 University academics have been killed in Iraq, most of them professionally assassinated. Many of them had spoken out against the occupation. That number only includes academics, it does not include the staff that belongs to other fields and institutions, who have been targeting since the beginning of the occupation, such as directors of primary and secondary schools, high schools or health workers. It does not include hundreds of scientists. It is only the tip of the iceberg in terms of the destruction of the middle class in Iraq, the deaths of 1.4 million civilians, as of October 2010, the destruction of schools, the increase of illiteracy, the absence of rebuilding, the corruption of the government. There has been a systematic liquidation of technical staff and mass forced displacement of the middle class.

Dia al Azzawi has created a moving sculpture dedicated to the academics with the title Wounded Soul, A Journey of Destruction.  Its point of departure is a standing horse pierced by arrows which I put on my blog last year. It is inspired by the Trojan Horse. The idea of deception and duplicity, famous all over the world: a pretended gift that brought death and destruction. Now he has also created a fallen horse  Fountain of Pain of bronze that refers to the Neo Assyrian fallen lioness of Ninevah.  It is surrounded by white roses made of polyester resin., each rose  honoring an academic killed in Iraq. None of the murders have been solved or even investigated. According to some reports, the assassination campaign is being conducted by Mossad hit squads in collaboration with the U.S. government because scientists refused to cooperate with the U.S. on the question of nuclear development. But these murders include people in all fields of academia and ends with a famous calligrapher. The destruction of the heart of Iraqi cultural and intellectual life is destroying the future not only for that country, but for the whole world. Any academic killed represents research destroyed, students not taught, the heritage of knowledge no longer possible.

Dia Al Azzawi's Wounded Soul detail: The Trojan Horse