The Nasher Sculpture Center in Dallas invites the public to a free lunchtime celebration with artist and 2020 Nasher Prize Laureate, Michael Rakowitz, on Saturday, February 8, from 11am-2pm. Rakowitz will cook traditional Iraqi dishes and Texas BBQ at F.A.R.M. Urban Park in Dallas. Live music and dancing will be a part of the event.
Relational aesthetics in Rakowitz’s work has manifested in projects such as Enemy Kitchen, an Iraqi cooking workshop and a food truck in Chicago staffed by Iraqi refugees and émigrés. Rakowitz launched that work in 2003, after the US invasion of Iraq.
Says Rakowitz: “Preparing and then consuming this food opens up a new route through which Iraq can be discussed — in this case, through that most familiar of cultural staples: nourishment. Iraqi culture is virtually invisible in the US, beyond the daily news, and Enemy Kitchen seizes the possibility of cultural visibility to produce an alternative discourse.”
Rakowitz’s works delve into his dual heritage as an American artist of Iraqi Jewish descent and confronts the complex legacies embedded in that heritage as it relates to centuries of conflict in the Middle East. Through communion with others, Rakowitz builds on this method and fosters community through the shared experience of a meal with people of various backgrounds.
Joining Rakowitz for this event is Break Bread Break Borders, a Dallas-based catering company, founded by Jin-Ya Huang, which economically empowers refugee women by employing them as cooks.
The event is free and open to the public, but registration is required. Please register here.
Free parking is available nearby, and the event will be held rain or shine.
