Piers Secunda - ‘Mosul Museum I - V’

11 Jul

We have had the pleasure of hosting Piers Secunda at our studio to hand-finish his series of etchings, ‘Mosul Museum I - V’.

The ‘Mosul Museum’ series, produced after Secunda visited Mosul in 2018, is a continuation of his decade-long project documenting the deliberate cultural destruction worldwide, and depict the devastation of the city’s Cultural Museum by ISIS during their occupation, which began in 2014.

Charcoal produced by the fires lit by ISIS was collected from the ruins by Secunda and soldiers from the Iraqi Army, and upon returning to his studio, was mixed with alcohol and gum Arabic to form the unique inks used in the ‘Mosul Museum’ drawings.

Atelier JI has had the honour of collaborating with Secunda to reproduce the drawings as photogravure etchings using the ink made from the collected Mosul Museum charcoal. Each print was individually hand-finished by Secunda at our studio and packaged alongside a vial of the same charcoal.

‘Mosul Museum I - V’ are available for purchase as a set or individually.

We are proud to offer a vial of the Mosul Museum charcoal used to create the drawings and etchings with every purchase.

A portion of all sales will be gifted to Kind Aid, who provide medical assistance, clean water, and food to orphans in the west of Iraq's Kurdish region.

For sales, please click here or email peter {at} atelier-ji.com

“The photogravure etching is printed with charcoal gathered by myself from inside the ISIS burned portion of the Mosul Museum in 2018, a few months after the city was liberated.
Access to the Museum was given by the Iraqi Culture Minister Fryad Rwandozi, after we met at a UNESCO general Meeting in 2017, at which the discussions revolved around the destruction of culture. By that time, I had been making work about this subject for a decade.
I went into the Mosul Museum with the Iraq army specifically to make moulds of the smashed sculptures, which were then used to make an installation for the Ashmolean Museum, which they exhibited for about a year.”
Piers Secunda