Jurors, Artists and progress...

I've now been working at ISIS Arts, Newcastle, UK for three weeks. Iraqimemorial.org is nearly complete in the English version. The site is currently being translated to Arabic - when the translation is ready we will start creating the Arabic mirror to the English version. Iraqimemorial.org now has 6 jurors - I am looking forward to officially and publicly launching the site in the next few weeks. Presently there are 18 artists committed and working on the first group of proposals for the site.

What has been most challenging these past few days is to establish the "links" for the project. I've done my best to find a variety of sources for facts and figures related to civilian casualties in the war, along with other web sources both exploring issues surrounding contemporary memorials, sites linking to artists, memorials, both well known/and lesser known, Iraq politics, blogs from Iraqi citizens and American soldiers. I questioned myself whether to post the link to the official "Operation Iraqi Freedom Official Website of the Multi-National Force - Iraq", the site is undeniably problematic - yet one can learn from such official sources as much as one can be mystified.

First Invites to Artists

Today the first invitations to submit proposals to Iraqimemorial.org were sent out to a group of 50 artists. I've been working on this project since late June of 2007, having first conceptualized the work in 2003. I've been reading and researching about memorials, writing the various texts, working on the design and implementation of the website, etc. I've also been approaching a number of potential jurors for the project. I am hopeful that a majority of the artists and jurors who have so far been invited to participate will do so - my intent is for there to be some very strong memorial proposals online at the time that the project launched in November - at such time the Call for Proposals will be widely distributed both online and otherwise.

Very nervous yet hopeful! This project will not succeed without the generous contribution of time and concepts by artists and designers. Keeping my fingers crossed.