Geopolitics and the Event: Rethinking Britain's Iraq War Through Art (RGS-IBG Book Series)

"Geopolitics and the Event: Rethinking Britain's Iraq War Through Art offers a reappraisal of one of the most contentious and consequential events of the early twenty-first century. Drawing on analysis of dozens of art works and exhibitions and on interdisciplinary literatures and debates, the book advances an original perspective on Britain's role in the 2003 invasion and subsequent occupation of Iraq and maps out new ways of thinking about geopolitics through art. Examining the work of artists, curators and activists in light of Britain's role as a colonial power in Iraq and the importance of oil, the book highlights the diverse ways in which the war has been appropriated creatively, while reflecting on the significance, limits and dilemmas of art as a form of critical intervention. Written at the intersections between geography, politics and aesthetics, Geopolitics and the Event challenges conventional accounts of the Iraq war and questions the complex implications of art in colonialism and modernity"-- Read more... Abstract: "Geopolitics and the Event: Rethinking Britain's Iraq War Through Art offers a reappraisal of one of the most contentious and consequential events of the early twenty-first century. Drawing on analysis of dozens of art works and exhibitions and on interdisciplinary literatures and debates, the book advances an original perspective on Britain's role in the 2003 invasion and subsequent occupation of Iraq and maps out new ways of thinking about geopolitics through art. Examining the work of artists, curators and activists in light of Britain's role as a colonial power in Iraq and the importance of oil, the book highlights the diverse ways in which the war has been appropriated creatively, while reflecting on the significance, limits and dilemmas of art as a form of critical intervention. Written at the intersections between geography, politics and aesthetics, Geopolitics and the Event challenges conventional accounts of the Iraq war and questions the complex implications of art in colonialism and modernity"

An original exploration of the 2003 Iraq war and geopolitics more broadly through the prism of art.

• Offers a reappraisal of one of the most contentious and consequential events of the early twenty-first century
• Advances an original perspective on Britain's role in the 2003 invasion and subsequent occupation of Iraq
• Maps out new ways of thinking about geopolitical events through art
• Examines the work of artists, curators and activists in light of Britain's role as a colonial power in Iraq and the importance of oil
• Reflects on the significance, limits and dilemmas of art as a form of critical intervention
• Questions the implications of art in colonialism and modernity

Content: Introduction -- Thinking geopolitics through the event -- Artworks as evental assemblages -- Geopolitics at the museum -- Iraq beyond Iraq -- The geopolitical aesthetics of oil -- Photomontage as geopolitical form -- Geopolitical bodies -- Conclusions -- References -- Index