The Invisible Enemy Should Not Exist (Northwest Palace of Kalhu [Nimrud], Room F, Section 1, Panel 10), 2019
Arabic newspapers and food packaging, glue, cardboard
ΕΜΣΤ Collection
Acquired 2026
The Invisible Enemy Must Not Exist (Northwest Palace of Kalhu [Nimrud], Hall F, Section 1, Panel 10) is part of an ongoing project comprising multiple versions and variations, initiated by the artist in 2007 in response to the looting of antiquities from the National Museum of Iraq in Baghdad following the 2003 US invasion. Michael Rakowitz unfolds a complex narrative about the objects stolen from the Museum, their current whereabouts, the chain of events surrounding the invasion and looting, and the key protagonists in this story. The central element of the project is a series of sculptural replicas of looted archaeological treasures, made from food packaging originating in the Arab world. Although made from humble, everyday materials, these works appear as precious as the originals they are based on, highlighting their singularity.
The Iraqi-American artist draws upon his Arab-Jewish heritage to examine Western interventions in the Middle East. His works highlight the significance of cultural heritage in times of war and explore the ways societies negotiate the relative value of human life and of cultural monuments. This project is part of Rakowitz’s ongoing effort to recover thousands of lost objects through research in the database of the Institute for the Study of Ancient Cultures (ISAC) at the University of Chicago, as well as through information published on Interpol’s website. In the work belonging to the ΕΜΣΤ Collection, Rakowitz presents reliefs from “Room F”, a banquet courtyard within the palace of the 9th-century BCE King Ashurnasirpal II, built at Kalhu, the ancient Assyrian city of Nimrud. By the time the palace was destroyed by ISIS in 2015, 400 of the 600 gypsum reliefs that once covered its walls had already been removed by archaeologists during various expeditions and dispatched to museums in the West. Rakowitz’s Nimrud Palace reliefs continue to spark discussions about colonialism and the preservation or erasure of the memory of past civilisations.
Michael Rakowitz was born in 1973 in New York. He lives and works in Chicago.
