About Michael Rakowitz

Michael Rakowitz is a Chicago-based Iraqi-American artist who describes his work as an intersection between problem-solving and troublemaking. In the exhibition BeLonging - Michael Rakowitz and the Mesopotamian collection he highlights both the loss of Middle Eastern cultural heritage and the human suffering imposed by war, political upheaval, and foreign occupation.

Michael Rakowitz (b. 1973, New York, US) is a Chicago-based Iraqi-American artist. He describes his work as an intersection between problem-solving and troublemaking. Known for his installations, sculptures and multimedia projects where he weaves together complex histories, he shines light on the tense relation between the Global West and the Middle East. Rakowitz highlights both the loss of Middle Eastern cultural heritage and the human suffering imposed by war, political upheaval, and foreign occupation. He strives to complicate the current narrative around cultural heritage, ongoing forces of colonization, as well as colonial and postcolonial discourses. He touches upon the fraught relationship between preservation and destruction in modern archaeology and cultural heritage work.

His work has been exhibited worldwide, most notably at dOCUMENTA (13); P.S.1 MoMA, New York; Kiasma, Helsinki; Victoria & Albert Museum and Tate Modern, London; and many more. In Sweden, his works have previously been shown at Malmö Konsthall, Tensta Konsthall and at Medelhavsmuseet. In 2020, Rakowitz was awarded the 2018–2020 Fourth Plinth commission in London’s Trafalgar Square.

Photo: John Nguyen