Car
Above: the skeleton of a car that was destroyed during a suicide bombing in Iraq in March of 2007. The site was a busy book market in central Baghdad, on a street named after a poet. Thirty-eight people died. Hundreds more were hurt. Perhaps, if you've followed coverage of the war with any regularity, you recall this particular attack. For most of us, though, it was one attack among countless ones; even if we happened to have the radio tuned to a news channel on the day of the attack, chances are we merely took note of the numbers (38 dead, hundreds wounded). We probably didn't think about the cultural ramifications of burning books or obliterated cafes, or how each of those 38 families coped with funeral arrangements. Four years ago it was hard enough to keep up or sustain emotion for the war. At year six, people are utterly fatigued, to the point of blocking it out of consciousness.
Of course, art always offers a secret door into conversations that we think we can never have. Tomorrow, British artist Jeremy Deller will park an RV and a flatbed trailer -- upon which that decimated car is strapped -- in the middle of The Loop, one of St. Louis' busiest cultural hubs, perhaps somewhat akin to Al-Mutanabbi Street. With him will be Jonathan Harvey, a former Army platoon seargent and current reservist, and Esam Pasha, an Iraqi translator, artist and journalist. The idea is to make the war real with tangible objects and first-hand witnesses, and so cut through all those deadening numbers -- body counts, numbers of units deployed, dollars spent. They are calling this traveling show "It is What It Is: Conversations About Iraq," and they'll park between Leland and Melville Avenues between noon and 5 p.m. tomorrow. (You can see the conversations they've had in other cities, here.) People are encouraged to show up, talk, ask questions, and bring their own objects related to the war if they so choose. We have The Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis to thank for bringing these chaps to town; if you've been longing to find a way to understand the war, or just metabolize it in your own heart, this may be you best and biggest chance to start doing that. Also note that they have another seriously cool event tomorrow at 6:30 p.m., a performance by Tris Vonna-Mitchell, whose Front Room show opens on Wednesday, April 1 and runs through the 12th. --Stefene Russell
