Palestinian artist Reem Da’as’s work, A Brief Time in Iraq, consists of the scanning of an album of photographs taken by two adventurous tourists who drove their car from East Jerusalem to Iraq on the eve of the US-British invasion in March 2003. The ”tourists” documented the calm in Iraq, before it became a distant memory, when the colonialist vision of the neo-conservatives in America was replaced by an awakening into a nightmare. Created consciously and ironically, their photographs imitate the touristy custom to have one’s picture taken with familiar sites as the backdrop, a practice which originated in the late 19th century, when European tourists started travelling beyond the boundaries of the continent. The two documented the damage caused by the invasion, when it was still possible to wander freely, to photograph the empty streets, and visit sites later closed to journalists. The two ”tourists” assimilated among the American soldiers who were neither apprehensive of the lens nor attributed an unusual significance to the presence of the two. Without consideration of composition, lighting, or technical aspects, their attention was mainly directed at conveying their impressions, and their point of view was oriented toward documenting the events. The sense of irony elicited by this work and the sense of alienation with regard to the prevalent perception of presenting photographs in a gallery underscore the photographs’ referent and the horror they expose.
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