Interview with Wafaa Bilal
2018
Here Wafaa Bilal explores the tension between using art to make a statement, and using art as a call to action. His past works Domestic Tension (2007) and Virtual Jihadi (2008) used video game simulations as a platform to address physical and symbolic violence towards Iraqis and Arabs following the war in Iraq in 2003.
Iraqi-born artist Wafaa Bilal, professor at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts, is known internationally for provoking dialogue about international politics and internal dynamics through high profile, technologically-driven projects that employ the use of robotics, the internet, and photographic mobile mapping. Bilal’s work explores tensions between the cultural spaces he occupies—his home in the “comfort zone” of the USA and his consciousness in the “conflict zone” of Iraq.